Cincy Jungle
The contract details for Ja’Marr Chase show he left a lot of guaranteed money from the Bengals on the table.
We are more than two weeks into the new NFL year, and questions about where most of the big-name free agents will play in 2025 have already been answered.
For the Cincinnati Bengals, there haven’t been any splash signings, with the team adding only a handful of outside free agents so far, including running back Samaje Perine, defensive lineman Tedarrell Slaton, and guard Lucas Patrick.
With that in mind, however, the big move the Bengals made was to sign its pair of in-house free agent receivers, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, to contract extensions that will keep the pair in Cincinnati for the foreseeable future. While that won’t help keep Joe Burrow upright behind the Bengals’ porous offensive line, it should at least help keep him happy.
Having already looked at the details of Tee Higgins’ contract, the next logical step is to look at how much the record-breaking contract the Bengals gave to Higgins will cost the team in the coming years.
The cash in the deal breaks down by year as follows:
2025
Signing bonus: $22 million (fully guaranteed)
Roster bonus: $10 million (fully guaranteed)
Workout bonus: $100,000 (fully guaranteed)
Base salary: $8.07 million (fully guaranteed)
Per-game roster bonuses: Up to $1 million
Yearly cash: $41.147 million
2026
Option bonus: $15 million (injury guaranteed)
Workout bonus: $100,000
Base salary: $17.73 million (fully guaranteed)
Per-game roster bonuses: Up to $1 million
Total cash: 33.83 million
2027
Option bonus: $5 million (fully guaranteed in March 2026)
Workout bonus: $100,000
Base salary: $23.9 million (fully guaranteed in March 2026)
Per-game roster bonuses: Up to $1 million
Total cash: $30 million
2028
Workout bonus: $100,000
Base salary: $31.9 million ($7 million fully guaranteed in March 2027)
Per-game roster bonuses: Up to $1 million
Total cash: $33 million
2029
Workout bonus: $500,000
Base salary: $43.316 million
Per-game roster bonuses: Up to $1 million
Total cash: $44.816 million
The contract includes a pair of void years, allowing the team to push $5 million of the $161 million of cap hits from the contract into league years after the end of the contract in 2030 and 2031.
Putting all that together, the cap hits for the contract, and where those cap hits come from, are as follows:
2025
Signing bonus proration: $4.4 million
Roster bonus: $10 million
Workout bonus: $100,000
Base salary: $8.07 million
Per-game roster bonuses: Up to $1 million
Cap hit: $23.57 million
2026
Signing bonus proration: $4.4 million
Option bonus proration: $3 million
Workout bonus: $100,000
Base salary: $17.73 million
Per-game roster bonuses: Up to $1 million
Cap hit: $26.23 million
2027
2025 signing bonus proration: $4.4 million
2026 option bonus proration: $3 million
2027 option bonus proration: $1 million
Workout bonus: $100,000
Base salary: $23.9 million
Per-game roster bonuses: Up to $1...
