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Bengals Cost Themselves Significant Cap Space With Questionable Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins Contract Structure

The Bengals could've maximized their cap space with a few simple tweaks to Chase and Higgins' contracts.

James Rapien

Ja’marr Chase reacts to Tee Higgins saying he plans to send his new money on an aquarium built into the wall of his home during a press conference to announce the signing of new contracts for Cincinnati Bengals wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins at Paycor Stadium in downtown Cincinnati on Tuesday, March 18, 2025. Chase becomes the new highest-paid non-quarterback player in the NFL.
Ja’marr Chase reacts to Tee Higgins saying he plans to send his new money on an aquarium built into the wall of his home during a press conference to announce the signing of new contracts for Cincinnati Bengals wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins at Paycor Stadium in downtown Cincinnati on Tuesday, March 18, 2025. Chase becomes the new highest-paid non-quarterback player in the NFL. / Sam Greene/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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CINCINNATI — The Bengals signed Tee Higgins and Ja'Marr Chase to four-year contract extensions earlier this week.

Chase became the highest-paid non-quarterback in the NFL when he signed a four-year, $161 million deal that included $112 million guaranteed. The 25-year-old is under contract through the 2029 campaign.

Higgins signed a four-year, $115 million extension. He's under contract through the 2028 season.

The Bengals could've cleared significant cap space with both contracts to add more veterans to their roster in free agency. Instead, they essentially broke even.

Chase's 2025 cap hit went up by $1.75 million to $23.575 million. Higgins' dropped by $2.117 million.

Instead of breaking even, the Bengals could've easily cleared $12-$14 million in space to use on a starting guard, veteran pass rusher or even a proven defensive back.

"Structure of Chase's deal is fine overall (good, in fact), except for having a non-proratable $10M roster bonus in 2025, which all hits the cap this year," salary cap expert Andre Perrotta tweeted. "Bengals unnecessarily ate $8M in 2025 cap space by not folding in Ja'Marr's $10M 2025 roster bonus into his $22M day-of-signing roster bonus. If they just combined those and did a $32M roster bonus earned on the day of signing and thus prorated (instead of $22M proratable, and $10M not proratable), Chase's 2025 Cap Hit = $15,570,000. Instead, it is $23,570,000."

Related: Joe Burrow Reacts to Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins Contract Extensions

That's $8 million in cap space they could've cleared by structuring the bonus differently. They also could've cleared millions with Higgins' contract, instead of the $2 million they ended up shaving off of his cap hit.

"Bengals could have further reduced Tee's 2025 Cap Hit (compared to the 2nd Tag amount) by $3.75M if they folded his second 2025 roster bonus ($5M) into his first 2025 roster bonus ($15M), since all $20M would have been prorated instead of just the $15M," Perrotta tweeted. "CIN could have had an additional $3.75M in 2025 Cap Space if the 2025 Roster Bonuses would not have been split."

Those two simple maneuvers would've given Cincinnati nearly $12 million in 2025 cap space that they could've used on Brandon Scherff, Za'Darius Smith, Calais Campbell and most importantly: Trey Hendrickson.

The Bengals need to add more pieces to their roster. They haven't done enough in free agency to this point. If they had structured these contracts differently, it would've given them far more flexibility.

They currently have roughly $11 million in cap space after you account for rookie contracts and practice squad. That number could go up if they move on from Germaine Pratt, Zack Moss or Cordell Volson, but they would've had double the room with a few tweaks to their contract extensions with Chase and Higgins.

This team needs to maximize every resource to put as much talent on the field as possible. This was and is a missed opportunity.

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James Rapien
JAMES RAPIEN

James Rapien is the publisher of Bengals On SI. He's also the host of the Locked on Bengals podcast and Cincinnati Bengals Talk on YouTube. The Cincinnati native also wrote a book about the history of the Cincinnati Bengals called Enter The Jungle. Prior to joining Bengals On SI, Rapien worked at 700 WLW and ESPN 1530 in Cincinnati

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