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The Cincinnati Bengals are ready to go on a revenge tour in 2024. QB Joe Burrow is healthy and the Bengals are ready to assert themselves as one of the AFC's top teams. They will need everyone, including superstar Ja'Marr Chase, on board and ready to go in Week 1. One new report suggests that Chase and the Bengals could be making progress on contract negotiations.
Ja'Marr Chase is at Bengals practice in street clothes again on Monday, per The Athletic's Paul Dehner Jr. Chase showed up early to practice instead of late as he has for recent practices.
“I guess we could say his practice presence has ‘intensified',” Dehner Jr. posted on X, formerly Twitter.
This comes on the heels of Cincinnati increasing the urgency of contract negotiations with Chase's representation. The Bengals have reportedly offered Chase well over $30 million per year on average, according to ESPN's Jeremy Fowler. Cincinnati seems to want a deal done in the next couple of days so that Chase will be ready in Week 1.
The negotiations could start to get ugly if the two sides cannot agree to an extension by the middle of this week.
ProFootballTalk's Mike Florio believes that Thursday could be the deadline for an extension before things get worse.
“The simple truth is that it has been ugly,” Florio wrote on Sunday. “And there’s a good chance that, if Chase doesn’t get his deal by Thursday of this week, it could get a lot uglier.”
Bengals fans are hoping that a deal gets done ASAP. The Bengals will look like a much different team in Week 1 if they do not have Ja'Marr Chase.
Bengals star WR Ja'Marr Chase's petty Justin Jefferson-related contract request
Ja'Marr Chase is not the only superstar wide receiver who has forced the issue on contract negotiations this offseason.
Brandon Aiyuk, CeeDee Lamb, and Amon-Ra St. Brown have all signed monster contract extensions over the past several months. However, it is his former LSU teammate Justin Jefferson who Chase would like to surpass with a new contract.
Chase reportedly wants his new deal to be worth one cent more than Jefferson's contract, according to Ian Rapaport.
“My understanding is that the two sides are still discussing a long-term extension, that, if he got it, would make him either tied for the highest-paid receiver with Justin Jefferson, or beating Justin Jefferson by one cent, which I believe is the goal by Ja'Marr Chase,” Rapoport said on Tuesday.
For reference, Justin Jefferson signed a four-year, $140 million extension with the Vikings back in June. That deal included a whopping $110 million guaranteed including over $88 million due at signing.
There is one tactic the Bengals could use to make Chase's contract more palatable. Cincinnati could lower his average annual salary by offering a longer-term contract, according to CBS Sports' John Breech.
“For the Bengals, the advantage of doing a deal now is that they would be able to spread out Chase's cap hits over six seasons,” Breech explained. “Chase is set to make just $1.055 million in base salary this year followed by a fifth-year option in 2025 that would pay him $21.82 million. If the Bengals matched Jefferson's deal (or gave him one cent more), they'd have Chase under contract for the next six years for a total of $162.88 million or $27.15 million per year, which sounds much more team friendly than $40 million per year.”
Hopefully this situation resolves itself soon.
