Two weeks ago, news broke that the Cincinnati Bengals had inked new deals with wideouts Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins worth $161 million and $115 million, respectively. I saw someone on social media say, “The Bengals are finally spending money. They’ve turned a new leaf.” But is this actually true?

It may seem like the Bengals have modified their approach, but when you examine the details of the deal (especially the Higgins deal) you realize that’s not actually the case.

 

How Other NFL Teams Do Business?

To understand this subject, we first need to have some understanding of how the Bengals have typically done business compared to how other teams have their business. Many NFL teams pay players significant amounts of cash during the off-season months and pay their players minimal actual base salaries during the season.

The bulk of the NFL’s revenue is generated throughout the summer months (during the time training camps and preseason is going on) and during the early-to-middle months of the regular season. Every NFL team makes big money each year, mostly from the shared revenue generated by the TV contracts.

This means, when NFL teams give players large sums of money in the spring, months before the bulk of their revenue is generated, the teams are sort of “fronting” the cash. But the teams do this because they know they’ll get that money back, plus profits, later in the year as revenue comes rolling in.

One great benefit for teams is that, when they pay their players large bonuses in the spring in lieu of higher base salaries, the NFL teams can elect to “stretch out” the salary cap hit over the course of five seasons. So any NFL team can give a player $20 million in cash in one particular year, but only 1/5 of that money actually gets charged against the salary cap in that particular season. This functionally allows teams to go over the cap.

 

Bengals Are All About Cash Flow, But They’re Getting More Creative

A few teams, like the Bengals, have preferred to do business differently. In fact, the prefer the inverse of what many of the other teams have done. The Bengals’ track record has been to avoid paying players significant monies during the off-season months, electing instead to pay their players higher base salaries throughout the actual season. The simple reason: cash flow.

Teams like the Bengals don’t want to “front” any monies. They want to pay players as the money is coming in. This usually means roster bonuses and higher base salaries. Roster bonuses and base salaries are not “stretched out” at all; they fully count against the salary cap in the actual season when they are paid.

So if the Bengals pay a player $20 million in any particular season, all of that money will get charged against the current salary cap.

If NFL teams want to acquire or re-sign certain players, but those players’ salaries would supposedly be prohibitive because of the salary cap limitations, the teams could still acquire or re-sign those players, and even pay them handsomely, but they’d simply need to have those monies be accounted for in future seasons—charged against the salary caps in those future years. The Bengals have rarely opted for this route because it would demand that they front monies.

 

Understanding the Salary Floor: They’re Required to Spend (Some) Money

The Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) has a “salary floor.” This is the minimum amount of money that each team must spend each season on players’ compensation.

From 1994 to 2009, prior to the current CBA, the salary floor was 84% of the salary cap.

However, starting in 2011, each NFL team must spend a sum on player compensation, over any four-year period, that is equal or greater to 89% of the collective salary cap number over those previous four seasons. Let’s look at what that practically looks like.

 

 

As shown in the table above, the total sum of the salary caps from 2021-2024 was $870.9 million. This means that each NFL team must have spent $775.1 million (actual cash) on player compensation over the course of those four seasons. This is audited by the NFLPA each year on September 15th.

NFL teams do not necessarily need to spend 89% of the salary cap number in each season, but they must average that percentage over the previous four seasons. So, some teams may fall below that 89% benchmark in multiple seasons, but can make up for it with one or two big contracts in one particular season.

 

The Bengals Have Been the Bungles, But Times Are Changing, Right?

Most seasons from 1994 to 2009, the Bengals would hover around that 84% benchmark. From 2011 to 2019, the Bengals spent a bit more (overall), but have consistently been below the 89% benchmark most seasons, along with a handful of other NFL teams. But once every few seasons they’ve spent some significant sum of monies on a few players, which would barely bring up their average to the 89% benchmark.

The Bengals have consistently spent the absolute minimum for most of the last 30 years.

However, since the Bengals drafted Joe Burrow in 2020, we’ve seen a slight uptick. In 2020, they were just above the league average, fueled by Burrow’s rookie contract as well as signing bonuses paid to D.J. Reader, A.J. Green, Joe Mixon, Trae Waynes, and Geno Atkins. However, in 2021 and 2022, they were again significantly below league average.

But then, in 2023, they paid big signing bonuses to Burrow and Orlando Brown Jr. and approached league average again. They ranked 21st in overall total cash spending from 2020-2024.

In addition to spending the minimum on personnel, the Bengals have been known for refusing to upgrade facilities, locker rooms, and training rooms. That too has recently changed. In 2022, the Bengals announced various plans for upgrade. In 2024, they unveiled various upgrades to facilities and the most technologically-advanced locker rooms in the NFL. So there does seem to be some evidence that they’ve shifted.

 

Ja’Marr Chase’s Mega Deal

The Bengals drafted Ja’Marr Chase with the 5th pick of the 2021 draft. His rookie deal was worth $30.8 million, over four years, plus the Bengals had the fifth year option, which would pay him $21.8 million in year five.

In spring of 2024, the Bengals elected to pick up the fifth year option (teams are required to make that determination before the player’s fourth season). Most teams then seek to sign long-term contracts with their players soon after exercising the option. But that didn’t happen with Chase and the Bengals.

It’s unusual to allow a star player to ever actually get to his fifth year without a contract extension. But the Bengals didn’t extend Chase. This caused a bit of a stir in NFL circles.

Entering into the spring 2025, it looked like Chase would play under the fifth year option. He’d be paid the $21.8 million and 100% of that sum would count against the cap in 2025. This caused many observers to think, “Same old cheap Bengals, refusing to give their star wideout a contract.” But then the Bengals surprised the NFL community by inking big money deals with Chase and Higgins on the same day.

The Bengals gave Chase a four-year contract extension worth $161 million, with $73.9 million fully guaranteed. A part of that guaranteed money is a $22 million signing bonus. They also paid him a $10 million roster bonus. So Chase got $32 million upfront.

 

Bengals Finally Getting Creative

The surprising news, other than the two deals being inked at the same time, is that the Bengals used some of the more creative salary cap maneuvers that some other teams use. They didn’t do it to the same extent as teams like the Saints or Eagles, but they did employ a few notable tactics.

 

1) They Used Dummy Years

The Bengals used dummy years in Chase’s contract to prorate the future option bonuses. This is not something they’ve done much of with non-QB in the past. They added two dummy years (2030 and 2031).

 

2) They’re Structured it With Dead Money

The Bengals structured the contract, intentionally, in a manner that will leave “dead money” after the contract expires. The cap allocations slated for 2030 and 2031 will accelerate and be charged as dead money in 2030.

 

3) Option Bonuses

The Bengals inserted option bonuses into Chase’s contract. This is a roster bonus that is due to be paid in one particular year, and will count against the salary cap in the same year it was paid, but the team has the option to pay the bonus as a signing bonus and prorate the bonus over the length of the contract.

For example, Chase is due a $3 million option bonus in March 2026. It is slated to count fully against the 2026 cap, but the Bengals will have the option the stretch out that $3,000,000 payment over the course of the 2026-2030 season so that only $600,000 counts against the 2026 cap.

So, that means, Chase’s current bonus allocation in 2026 is $7.5 million (see the table below). But the Bengals could opt to convert how the bonuses are paid so that $2.4 million of those monies get accounted for in future years, effectively bringing Chase’s salary cap hit down from $26.23 million to $23.83 million.

 

Chase Contract Deets

In addition, and maybe more interestingly, Chase will be paid $62,500 for each game he is active—that amounts to $1 million in additional per-game bonus money in 2025. Agents and NFLPA representatives see these per-game bonuses as controversial (more about these per-game bonuses later in the article, being that these are an even bigger portion of the Higgins contract).

Chase’s full contract looks like this:

 

 

Minimal Upfront Monies for Chase

Overall, this is not a cheap contract. The Bengals are paying Chase a lot of money, and rightfully so. Chase is, arguably, the best wideout in the game—and maybe the best non-QB offensive player in the NFL. But there’s one thing that stands out about this deal that reminds you that we’re still dealing with the Bengals.

The Bengals have gotten more creative and they have begun to spend major monies, but they still don’t love shelling out large chunks of cash. As previously mentioned, Chase’s contract included $32 million in upfront money. When you compare that to other contracts of similar players, you see that’s actually somewhat low.

 

 

A few key observations:

– Jefferson got more upfront monies than Chase, both raw number ($37.438 million) and percentage of contract (26.7%), even though Jefferson signed his a year earlier.

– Jefferson, Lamb, and Hill got 26-27% of their money upfront, compared to Chase’s 19.9%.

– Metcalf’s contract is somewhat comparable to Chase’s. Either the Steelers overpaid or the Bengals underpaid, or maybe a little bit of both.

 

The Higgins Contract

Now, let’s look at the other big deal: Tee Higgins. The Bengals drafted Higgins in the second round of the 2020 draft. His rookie deal was worth $8.6 million over four years. In 2024, they place the franchise tag on him. Under the tag, Higgins was paid $21.8 million and 100% of that sum counted against the salary cap in 2024.

Headed into the 2025 off-season, they franchise tagged Higgins again. But Higgins signed a new deal that replaced the franchise tag.

As a part of Higgins’ new contract, he was paid upfront bonus money of $20 million (a $15 million signing bonus and a $5 million roster bonus). His first year base salary in 2025 will be $13.8 million. That is a very high base salary when compared to contracts for wide receivers around the league.

The $15 million signing bonus will be prorated over the length of the deal ($3.75 million per year) and he’ll get a $100k workout bonus each season, so $3.85 million per season in bonuses against the cap. 100% of the roster bonus and 100% of the base salary will count against the salary cap in 2025.

In addition, Higgins will be paid $117,647 for each game he is active—that amounts to $2 million in additional per-game bonus money in 2025 (more about the per-game bonuses later in the article).

Higgins’ total cap charge in 2025 will be $24.65 million. In year two, the contract also calls for a high base salary. His contract looks like this:

 

 

Higgins was paid $20 million upfront ($15 million signing bonus and $5 million roster bonus) and, if he plays all 17 games, he’ll be paid out another $15.9 million between September and the end of the league year (that’s $35.9 million in actual cash during the first year of the contract. The Bengals will only pay him $18 million in total cash during year two. The Bengals will pay Higgins $53.9 million total in 2025 and 2026.

The Bengals could easily move on from Higgins after the 2026 season with minimal financial ramifications. My prediction is Higgins will only play out two years of this contract before getting cut or traded.

 

This Deal is Very Team-Friendly

This deal is favorable to the Bengals. They’ll pay him market rates and then can easily get out of the deal after 2026.

If Higgins elected to play under the franchise tag in 2025, as he did in 2024, he would have been paid $26.16 million and Higgins would then be slated to be an unrestricted free agent in 2026.

However, when that time came, in the unlikely event that the Bengals elected to tag Higgins again, for the third consecutive season, then they would have been forced to pay him $37.67 million in 2026. That means they would have paid him $63.83 million over two seasons (2025 and 2026).

But with this new contract Higgins is getting $53.9 million over those two seasons. So, Higgins will get $9 million more in this calendar deal, with this new contract compared to what he would’ve gotten under the franchise tag, but he will get $10 million less over the next two years.

So, why would Higgins agree to this deal? Well, there’s multiple reasons, but the main reason is usually to protect against injury. Higgins would get more money from this contract than he would from the franchise tag in the event he suffered a career-ending injury. (We’ll tackle this in more depth later in this article).

 

Creative Meets Cheap: Per Game Bonuses

So, we’ve seen that the Bengals got creative with the Chae contract. But they’re less creative with Higgins.

But one way they got a little more creative is with the per-game bonuses. As mentioned above, Higgins’ deal includes $8 million in “per-game” roster bonuses over four year and $400k in annual workout bonuses over the four years. These bonuses are seen as somewhat controversial by some agents and NFLPA executives. The NFLPA would rather just see players get paid bonuses for being on the roster (hence the name “roster bonus”).

The amount of Chase’s and Higgins’ per-game bonuses are higher than norm, but especially for Higgins.

The only other wideouts with major per game roster bonuses are Amon-Ra St. Brown with $510,000 total per year and Tyreek Hill with $941,000 total per year. Chase at $1 million and Higgins at $2 million is significant.

These bonus structures serve two purposes. First, they protect the team against Higgins’ injury woes (he’s missed 10 games over the last 2 seasons). Inevitably, Higgins will miss some games and it’ll save the Bengals some money.

Second, and more importantly, even if Higgins is fully healthy and the Bengals pay out the full $2 million in any given season, they’ll be paying those bonuses throughout the season—from their in-season cash flow, not from cash reserves. This structure allows the Bengals to avoid shelling out more upfront cash (more on that later in this article).

 

Creativity or Cheap?: Offset Language

According to Pro Football Talk, another element that frustrated some NFLPA representatives is the offsetting language in Higgins’ contract connected to the roster bonuses. There is a $10 million roster bonus due to Higgins in March 2026, which is guaranteed—but still contingent.

The Bengals could cut Higgins after the 2025 season, but they’d supposedly still on the hook for that $10 million. However, the money they owe him would be offset by dollars paid by another team.

So, if another team paid him $10 million or more for one season, the Bengals would actually owe him nothing. If another team paid him, let’s say, $6 million, then the Bengals would only be on the hook for $4 million. This is unusual, but not unprecedented. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that the Bengals would cut him after 2025.

 

Again, Minimal Upfront Monies

As previously mentioned, Higgins’ new contract included $20 million in upfront money. But just like what we saw with Chase, the upfront monies feel low—and it’s worse for Higgins than it was for Chase.

 

 

A few key observations:

– Only 17.3% of Higgins new money in the contract is being paid out in upfront bonuses. That’s the lowest percentage on this list.

– Higgins’ upfront monies is less than what McLaurin, Samuel, and Kirk got three years earlier. League revenues and the salary cap have increased by more than 34% over the last three years. Considering the increases in league revenues, as well as general inflation across the country over the last few years, I would have expected Higgins’ upfront monies to be somewhere between $28 million and $34 million.

– 31-year-old Mike Evans got a higher amount of upfront monies this off-season ($21.8 million) which accounts for 53% of his total contract.

– Higgins’ upfront monies is equal to what Calvin Ridley got one year ago. Except, in Ridley’s case, 21.7% of his contract was paid upfront, while only 17.3% of Higgins’ deal was paid upfront.

Please don’t get me wrong. Tee Higgins is being paid very well. And he’s earned it. When you consider the average annual value of the contract, he’ll be one of the top 10 highest paid wide receivers in the NFL in 2025. But the structure of this deal is undoubtedly very team-friendly.

 

Why Stay in Cincy?

Some observers might ask, “Why would a player like Tee Higgins sign such a team-friendly deal like this one with the Bengals.” Well, there’s all sorts of reasons why a player might want to do that.

 

1) Higgins was Franchise-Tagged

Higgins was not an unrestricted free agent. Higgins could negotiate with other teams, but the Bengals had the right to match any potential offer. And in the event the Bengals opted not to match another offer, the team would need to give up two first-round draft picks to acquire Higgins. That was unlikely to happen, so Higgins had very little leverage.

 

2) Guaranteed Monies and Injury Risk

Higgins could have opted to play in the franchise tag in 2025. But the big factor is injury risk. Under the franchise tag, Higgins would have been paid $26.16 million and the entire sum would be fully guaranteed. If Higgins were to suffer a career ending injury in OTD’s or training camp, he would still be entitled to that $26.16 million.

With this new contract, $30 million is guaranteed at signing. So if Higgins suffers that sort of major injury, he’s entitled to $30 million, not just $26.16 million. Also, as part of this contract, his year one base salary of $13.8 million becomes fully guaranteed after week one, so if Higgins were to suffer a career-ending injury at any point in the season after week one, he’d still be guaranteed a full $43.8 million.

Is it likely that Higgins will suffer that sort of major career-ending injury? No, it’s no likely, but it’s most certainly within the realm of possibilities. Pro football is a tough sport, and injuries are real. The guaranteed money is a big deal.

 

3) More Overall Cash and Some Monies Upfront

I’ve chided the Bengals for being cheap. I’ve highlighted that this deal has much less upfront money than I think a player like Higgins deserves. But they did shell out $20 million in upfront cash with this deal. Under the franchise tag, Higgins would have been paid $26.16 million from September to January. With this contract, he gets $20 million in March and then another $15.9 million from September through January.

This is a good deal for Higgins. I’m sure that Higgins and his financial advisors/planners would’ve been far happier to get more upfront monies in March, that he could then invest or utilize, but the money he’s getting isn’t chump change.

 

4) The Joe Burrow Effect

Joe Burrow is awesome. In my opinion, probably the second best overall quarterback in the NFL right now. Playing with him has got to be far more enjoyable than having Kyler Murray or Geno Smith as your quarterback. Several players and team executives have talked about the impact Burrow has had on the team, on and off the field.

We saw this for many years in New England. For many years the Patriots were consistently able to convince players to stay in New England on team-friendly deals. The reason was simple: Tom Brady. Lots of players wanted to play with Brady. With Brady to Helm, the team was always going to be competitive. That’s fun. Most NFL players are extremely competitive. They want to win. There’s ego and pride involved. So having Brady gave the Patriots an edge when it came to acquiring, retaining, and motivating talent (e.g., Randy Moss).

Also, potential endorsement deals are more plentiful when you play on a great team. The secondary players on bad teams are not getting any sponsorship or endorsement deals. The same impact Brady had in New England, Burrow is starting to have in Cincinnati.

 

5) One More Chance to Cash-in After This Deal

Playing opposite of Ja’Marr Chase, with Burrow as the QB, has allowed Higgins to put up some really good numbers. Staying put, in the same system, with same QB, gives him a chance to continue the same success.

When this contract is slated to expire in four years, Higgins will have just turned 30. He would have made over $100 million from this deal and would have a chance to get one more nice score. Of course, I think there’s a very good chance that the Bengals will release Higgins after 2026, and he’ll only be 28.

If he continues to put up decent numbers over the next few seasons, he’ll have the chance for one more decent pay day. We just saw Mike Evans and Davante Adams get nice paydays for their age 32 seasons, so I would imagine Higgins could have one more decent chance to cash-in.

 

They Could Have Structured Higgins Differently, And Maybe Kept Other Players Too

The last few weeks, sports talk radio in Ohio has been filled with conversations about Higgins—with many fans conceding that the Bengals could not afford Higgins. Once the contract was signed, several local sports personalities said that this was the reason why the Bengals had to let other key players go over the last few seasons—supposedly the Bengals knew this was coming and that’s why they couldn’t sign players.

Minutes after the Chase and Higgins signings were announced, lots of Bengals fans on social media claimed that these deals now meant the team could not afford to keep standout defensive lineman Trey Hendrickson (the Bengals have had trade talks with other teams because Hendrickson is demanding a new deal).

Over the last few years, the Bengals have allowed several players to depart because of contract expectations, including Jessie Bates, Vonn Bell, D.J. Reader, Logan Wilson, Alex Cappa, Joe Mixon, and Hayden Hurst.

The Bengals have attempted to replace those players with cheaper young options like Dax Hill, Nick Scott, Geno Stone, and Myles Murphy. But the impact from those players has been minimal.

But is this true? Answer: No!

 

They Can Still Pay Hendrickson, And Everybody Else Too

If the Bengals really want to keep Trey Hendrickson, there’s plenty of ways for them to do so, regardless of the Chase and Higgins contracts. In fact, if the Bengals truly wanted to keep any of the aforementioned players, the Chase and Higgins contracts (and their salary cap ramifications) would not have impeded the Bengals.

The Bengals management and their sycophants will say things like, “Hey, we spent the money? We can only spend so much?” But if they wanted to, they could have spent more.

The Higgins contract will take up 8.8% of their cap. But if they had structed the contract differently, they could have easily brought that cap number way down, which means, they could have conceivably had more money under the cap to spend on Hendrickson or free agents.

Bengals gave Higgins signing bonus ($15 million), roster bonus ($5 million), and high base salary ($13.8 million). Instead, they could have give him a bigger signing bonus, let’s say, $32.6 million. And then paid him a base salary of $1.2 million in year one. The total raw cash would’ve been the same, but the cap charge in 2025 would drop from $24.65 million to $10.25 million.

In addition, the Bengals could have used dummy years for the deal, allowing them to stretch the upfront monies over five years instead of four years, so the year one cap charge would be even less, down to $9.82 million.

And, they easily could have done more of this with the Chase deal too. Structuring the Chase and Higgins contracts with larger signing bonuses could have given the Bengals additional monies under the 2025 salary cap, and that would have cost them zero extra dollars.

So, why didn’t they opt for the extra cap space? Presumably, because they didn’t want the space or didn’t feel they needed the cap space. Does that sound like a club that’s going all-out to acquire or retain talent?

 

The Salary Cap Cannot Stop Them, But Profit Goals Can

If the Bengals were serious about acquiring and retaining talent, like Hendrickson, then they’d employ those tactics. These sorts of salary cap manipulation will give the NFL teams the opportunity to spend more money on players, but if they don’t want to spend more money, then there’s no reason to employ the tactics.

If/when the time comes that they trade Hendrickson, the Bengals front office will leak to reporters that they couldn’t keep him because of the cap. And the sycophants will reinforce it. And the ignorant media types will parrot it. And Bengals fans will blame the Chase and/or Higgins deals. But the truth will be, the Bengals ownership doesn’t want to spend the cash.

Ownership projects their revenue and sets their profit goals—of course, every business owner does this, not just NFL owners. This informs how much the owners are willing to spend.

Front office executives and general managers are indeed limited in what they can do and what players they can acquire, but the salary cap is not the thing that limits them. The thing that actually limits them is the owner’s profit goals.

Over the next few seasons when the Bengals inevitably refuse to pay the other high-quality players on the roster, like we’ve seen from them multiple times over the last few years, many naive fans will say things like, “Well, you know, there’s a salary cap. We’re paying Joe Burrow or Chase and Higgins. We can’t pay everybody.”

When you hear people say that, you should know, it’s baloney. If they wanted to, the Bengals could have actually paid everyone. As Joe Burrow recently said, “The Eagles are paying everybody. That seems like the way. [Let’s do] whatever they’re doing.”

 

Conclusion

The Bengals paid both Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins handsome contracts. That was the right thing to do. But let’s make it very clear, the Bengals haven’t changed as much as some would have you believe.

This franchise has used a particular approach to spending and cash flow management for the last 25+ years. While there are some positive signs, I’m still leery. I find it hard to believe that they’ve all-of-a-sudden developed a real commitment to winning. But maybe time will prove me wrong.