Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - HISTORY! | 4-year extensions for Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins DONE!

Starting point is 00:00:00 The deals are done, and importantly, they come with guarantees that make this unprecedented times for the Cincinnati Bengals. Let's get into it. You are locked on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What up, Bengals fans, and welcome to another episode of the Locked on Bengals podcast. I'm your host, Jake Liskow. He's your host, James Rupin. And we are locked on.

Starting point is 00:00:35 on Bengals on YouTube and everywhere you get your podcast. And if you're not in everyday already, now is a great time to hit that subscribe button on YouTube. Hit the bell on YouTube. Hit the follow button wherever you get your podcast. And you won't miss an episode, as we'll have you covered here with our bonus episode this time because the Bengals got the deals done with Jamar Chase and T. Higgins.

Starting point is 00:00:58 A very exciting day for all Bengals fans out there. And yes, there are still some questions. We'll get to those later. First we got to talk about the momentous news of the day, which is that the deals are done and there's an extra year compared to what I expected, James for T. Higgins tacked on and there are guarantees beyond year one. There are a lot of things about this, James, that is a unique scenario for the Cincinnati Bengals and a great day for the Bengals to keep their identity together. Yeah, it is. It's huge. It's huge news.

Starting point is 00:01:37 It's huge to see the Bengals break precedent in a few different ways. There are a lot of layers to this. And I will say this, there are, I would say for the majority of T. Higgins is Bengals' tenure. It didn't feel like he would get the second contract in Cincinnati. And whether it was Jamar, whether it was his agent, whether, and by Jamar, I mean, just having such an elite-wide receiver on the roster. Like, you knew the Bengals were paying. Jamar like six games into his rookie contract. You're like, oh, well, yeah, he's, he's going to be here for a long time. And with T, it was like, oh, well, can they keep them together? And that was a conversation

Starting point is 00:02:15 years ago. I mean, year two and year three of T. Higgins, where it's like, well, what are they going to do? And then you had everything play out the way it did. And for it to end up here now, where it's Joe, it's Jamar, it's T. Jamar's under contract for the next five years, T. Higgins, the next four years. You have this trio together for the next at least four years. For the rest of, I would say, they're prime.

Starting point is 00:02:43 It's a hell of a day. It's a hell of a night for the Cincinnati Bengals. And obviously other moves need to be made. But when it comes to championship level teams, you have to pick your core. And when you're starting out with Joe, Jamar and T, that's a hell of a core. That's better than most top three on any team.

Starting point is 00:03:10 And so if you're starting there, you have a shot in any game, in any matchup, on any field. You know that with these guys. And so to keep them, I want to hammer this home because I think that there's going to be a lot of national press, a lot of opinions, both good and bad about this, Bengals-wise. and it's very, very clear here. If the Bengals were going to get back to a Super Bowl, the most realistic path was to do this, was to keep Jamar and to keep T. Higgins long term. So for them to get both of those deals done,

Starting point is 00:03:43 it's a big, big night, big, big move for the franchise and for these receivers. Yeah, like I said on the show we recorded earlier today and a few minutes ago, it keeps their identity together. Their identity is a passing offense, anchored on the talents of Joe Burrough, Jamar Chase, and T. Higgins, and that's how they're winning football games. That is the engine for this football team. Do there need to be

Starting point is 00:04:01 complimentary pieces? Yeah. And like you said, people are going to be critical about team building. And we're going to have to talk about it in coming days and try to be really objective about the way the Bengals are doing it. But you can only do what's available to you in the moment. And a lot of the criticisms of the Bengals that you're going to see are going to be about what they should have done last year or two years ago. And while those are very, valid, don't get me wrong, they could not do those things now. They are not inventing a time machine and going back to right wrongs in the past. So what they could do now to keep the best team together that they could put on the field, keep their quarterback as happy as he can be, maintain their culture,

Starting point is 00:04:43 starts with these moves, and starts with maintaining that identity that has gotten them into deep playoff runs in the past when they've had the pieces around them. And then putting the pieces around them is what remains to be done. We haven't even talked about much of the specific financials in these deals either, James, which both have fascinating and unprecedented for the Bengals aspects to them, and both have some record-setting numbers for wide receivers involved, depending on the way you frame it. But at its core, from a football perspective, when we talked about this earlier, this offense is driven by having a great quarterback and two great wide receivers. Some of the best receivers that have ever played for the Bengals

Starting point is 00:05:21 probably going to end up being the best receiver that ever played for the Bengals in Jamar Chase. James, I know you have your thoughts about where T. Higgins ranks in this conversation as well, but that is what drives this team. That is what's driven this team for the last few years. And keeping that together gives you your identity to build around for this four-year window that now exists five years with Jamar Chase, but this window that exists around that offensive court.

Starting point is 00:05:47 Yeah, it's what they are. A lot of people were, like, it doesn't matter what offensive linemen they add. They could add Anthony Munoz in his prime and Max Montoya in his prime and insert whoever. They're going to throw the ball. They're going to throw the ball all over the damn field. And that's what they do. And so if they're going to be that and Joe's going to find completions, his words, not mine, do you not want the six, four, 225 pounder that's gotten better every single year?

Starting point is 00:06:19 and by far, I think by far looked the best of his career this year. And in training camp, just looked like a freaking stud. And I get it. He had those two soft tissue injuries that limited him. He still played in 12 games this year, had a career high, 10 touchdowns. What was really moving the chains, it felt like every pass T-Cot was getting a first down or a touchdown. Like it just felt like there were big play after big play over the middle, physical stuff, improved on his yak. bro talked about his pop-up game, how he'd pop up after these catches. It's because he's bigger,

Starting point is 00:06:53 stronger, and in his grown man body now versus young T from a few years ago. I just, I think that this was the path to them winning, and it doesn't have to look like some of these other teams. They have to do other things, but this is one of those first steps that needed to happen. A lot of people, we're going to get into the financials in just a second. A lot of people look at the Bengals and say, man, they, they should have got these done sooner. And I agree with you. I would have paid T sooner.

Starting point is 00:07:23 I certainly would have tried to get Jamar done last year. But I will say this. Justin Jefferson got his deal after year four, and he didn't get it until like June. So that was last June. Jamar got his deal after year four in March. It's not that off. It would have been unprecedented to get Jamar done

Starting point is 00:07:45 as early as they almost did last year. I wish they would have because it would have been such a better deal. But at the same time, I get it. They waited and it's kind of good for Jamar because he cashed in. We got to talk about the particulars, though, for Jamar Chase and T. Higgins and the precedent that the Bengals broke for both guys. We will do that coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by Monarch Money. Have you ever checked your bank account and wondered, where did all my money go?

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Starting point is 00:09:51 And you just want to stick to the Bengals. Well, you can take a look at Joe Burroughs MVP odds and see how they've been impacted by the solidified return of Jamar Chase and T. Higgins for the next four years or five years as well. You can check it all out at fandul.com to get in on all the college hoops action all tournament luck. All right, Jake. Let's start with Jamar. Highest paid. non-quarterback in NFL history. We knew it would get there.

Starting point is 00:10:23 I think we all knew. Anything surprise you about the 161? Nothing is surprising to me about the Jamar Chase deal from a financial perspective. I think that it could have been 164 very easily. It just barely jumps over Miles Garrett by 0.25 million instead of one full million dollars, which is interesting. $112 million guaranteed, which is not a number I was sure the Bengals would get to for him, but they get there.

Starting point is 00:10:54 It beats Justin Jefferson by a lot in the overall money category, of course, and in the guaranteed money category as well. And as is pointed out by others as well on social media, Jamar Chase's contract now runs for the next five years. So we use under contract for 2025 already. A four-year extension on top of that goes to. a five-year total. And for those five total years,

Starting point is 00:11:19 it's $182.8 million over those five years, including the fifth-year option that he was due in 2025. So that works out to be in the mid-30s over five years for Jamar Chase. That's the benefit you get in getting those extensions done early. So just to get the full breakdown there, that's a lot of money. Don't get me wrong. That's a lot of money for Jamar Chase. They will have to figure out what the structure looks like.

Starting point is 00:11:44 They figure that out. We'll have to figure that and see what it looks like, see what that tells us about their intent to spend additional money this year, their intent to manage the cap hits in future years, fully expecting some option bonuses here so that Jamar Chase has another big payday coming next year and pro-rating that cap hit out into the future. The other thing that I wasn't so sure about, and we'll see what exactly this will look like. But Jordan Schultz also indicating in another tweet late on Sunday that both cap numbers are, expected to decrease. And I wasn't so sure, James, that Jamar Chase's number would decrease, and I'm not sure how substantial it would be. I was pretty confident about it for T with the franchise tag number, 26. Something million. But I wasn't so sure about Jamars, because looking at Joe Burroughs

Starting point is 00:12:30 deal, they didn't reduce his year five, his fifth year option cap hit when they did that extension. But they apparently are doing it for Chase. We'll see to what degree. But if they are reducing those cap hits this year. We still need details there. And we'll talk about T's contract as well. That will tell us about their intent for the rest of free agency as well. Yeah, I think, well, there's a big difference. And that's why the timing of these is so important. I mentioned getting Jamars done in March and not June. Well, yeah, now you want the cap hit to go down. Joe's was in September. Who cares if it doesn't go down? It was already done. Like the season was starting. Well, it was for the following year, too, because they got Joe done a year earlier than Jamar.

Starting point is 00:13:12 Yeah, sure. And that's, but there's so much time to forecast that. And you're talking quarterback, anyways, the point is, is like now is the time to do it, to shrink these down as much as you can or at least to a degree so you can use that money elsewhere. And hopefully both, hopefully that's why there was so much an activity. Is there like, look, there's some good players that we want, but we're focused on getting these guys done. they said that they could do the parallel paths thing. I also think that it takes time to get both of these deals done.

Starting point is 00:13:49 They're two substantial deals. And so now they need to hit the ground run and continue to add to their roster. And by doing it now, because five, six days ago, there were people, and this can be like the last thing on Jamar and that we can get to the financials and stuff on tea. But there were people that were like, ah, Jamar's just going to wait out. Mike. And that was just clearly not the case. He was not worried about waiting out, Micah. I think it was the other way. I think this was making sure that T was taken care of. And the fact that it was really, it's a big layer of this is Rocky Arsenal being the agent for both of these guys and T. Higgins switching agents and how that opened up the door for this to be possible. And then I think we're both under the impression that Jammar was closed. around the combine. They had exchanged numbers, things were getting there.

Starting point is 00:14:46 And it sounds like Rocky was like, ah, before we get Jamar done, we're focused on T. And kind of use that to prioritize T to get both of these done now, which does help the Bengals because you do not want that cap hit at $26.179 million for T. Higgins. And to get that done now, they did a couple of things. One, they were able to get a fourth year with T, but they did something that I'm not sure anyone expected them to have to do, which is give that second year. That second year is guaranteed of this deal is age 27 season in 2020, in 2020, is going to be guaranteed now. And you point out that move that Arsenal made, and that's straight up reported on by Ari Maherav at this point.

Starting point is 00:15:31 I think we can consider that to be fact. I mean, Marav tweeted over an hour ago now, as we're recording this past midnight Eastern time, that Arsenault told the team no Jamar deal without tea. And so one, that's clever from the agent's perspective. But two, I think that it tells you about what these guys' relationship is about. And as we get into the details here, the financial details for T. Higgins, I think that T. Higgins, I mean, he's already a fan favorite. But this is putting your money where your mouth is, if you're T,

Starting point is 00:16:03 to stay in the situation he's in with the Cincinnati Bengals. and you do not see that kind of loyalty from players. Yes, he got paid. Don't get me wrong. He would have gotten paid more on the open market if he had made this very difficult, if he would have stayed with David Mulligeta. He could have made more money.

Starting point is 00:16:20 And so what the deal looks like now for T is four years, $150 million. So not only did he change agents and strategize with his teammates on the team to make sure that he got a deal to stay in Cincinnati, he also gave them a fourth year. And I think that's probably in exchange for that second year guarantee.

Starting point is 00:16:38 So this is now the third player in addition to Jamar Chase and Joe Burrow that the Bengals have given guarantees to outside of year one in recent years. And the second non-quarterback in addition to Jamar Chase to get guaranteed money from the Bengals outside of year one. And that $15 million over four years is just south of $29 million per year for T. Higgins, who was expected on the open market to be over 30. I think across the board, that would have been the expectation. And there are incentives in that contract for T to get to 30. million per year if he does hit all of those incentives now we don't know what those incentives are yet we haven't seen the structure of the contracts or anything like that but the things that i wanted to underline here are one the the clear desire from t higgins jemar chase joe borough to continue

Starting point is 00:17:25 to play together in cincinnati and two the bengal's willingness to play ball here and put guarantees outside of year one especially for tea i thought they would have to do it for jama i think we all did But doing it for T. Higgins as well shows a bit of an evolution for this team that is very noteworthy and will be noteworthy when we look back on it when we're talking about future free agent negotiations for the Bengals. Yeah. Hopefully it's the start of something unprecedented for the Bengals that not only is now precedented, but it's just part of what they do. and it's if you have a really high-end young player or you want to swim in that free agent pool, you're willing to give guarantees in year two because that opens up a whole other level

Starting point is 00:18:11 of keeping the Jesse Bates of the world, of keeping guys like that that you draft develop and hope becomes stars. Like you're hoping Amarious Mims becomes the best right tackle in the league. Well, guess what that means when you go to extend them, that you're paying guaranteed money in year two, which would be a great problem. Great problem to have.

Starting point is 00:18:30 And so hopefully that's it. Good for T. By the way, if I'm the Bengals, I would much rather have T for four years than three years if it means guaranteeing another year. Absolutely. Four years is way bigger than three years with just guarantees in year one. It's well worth the tradeoff there for the Cincinnati Bengals. We have more to discuss. We have to get into, man, just a huge, huge night for the Cincinnati Bengals. We'll continue the conversation coming up next. The NCAA tournament is here, and so is the bracket breakdown. Locked on podcast network and Amazon. Amazon Fire TV channels are teaming up to deliver NCAA tournament coverage like never before. Watch studio shows featuring former players and Lockdown's local experts as they guide you through every upset, buzzer beater, and bracket matchup. Stream it all for free on Amazon Fire TV channels. Search Bracket Breakdown to see it all for free. It's your team every day. James, as we talk about the future for this team now, I think a lot of people are thinking about what's next.

Starting point is 00:19:32 I think a lot of people are thinking about the roster construction questions. Before we get there, any final thoughts here on the financials, on what we've done and seen from the Bengals in a precedent-breaking way? The T. Higgins clear will, willing himself to stay in Cincinnati, anything else on those guys before we talk a little bit about what's next and some hints that potentially T. Trey Hendrickson is next for the Bengals to deal with. Yeah, I think all these guys just deserve a ton of credit. I mean, Joe, pushing, pushing, pushing publicly and in making it very clear, so much so that you have Duke Tobin coming out at the combine. Like, I agree with everything Joe said. He literally said that.

Starting point is 00:20:14 Everything our quarterback says, I agree with. And so, one, flexing his muscle. Two, T. Higgins, making, I think, a wise decision to say, hey, I'm going to stay. And I'm happy in Cincinnati. and I love playing with Joe and Jamar and I think we can win a title. And instead of going this other route, which, by the way, if the Bengals would have tagged T a second time with David Mulligeta, it would not have been as pretty. And it would have been much uglier.

Starting point is 00:20:44 And I know T didn't necessarily want to get tagged. I get that. But all of that was part of getting to tonight. And it was part of the process. And even then, Jammar being selfless enough to say, hey, don't take care of me. handle tea like that's there's a lot that goes into that because he was this close to getting a deal done last year and then to say let's push this off a little bit and make sure that tea's taken care of it's just it shows how tight these guys are and that that's just a hell of a trio to to push forward

Starting point is 00:21:19 with in their prime joe's 28 jimars 25 t's 26 love rolling with that and and i'm not sure anyone's is happy honestly and i haven't said this i didn't say this on the cincinnati bengals talk live stream i just thought about it now zach taylor might be the happiest man on the planet tonight he he might be the he doesn't have to answer jemar chase training camp questions t higgins stuff during o t plus every game plan he puts together he's going to have joe jimar and t that's uh that's a fun spot to be in hopefully he's not answering any other questions uh related to player attendance during any of these programs as the Bengals have their biggest contracts they had to deal with done now. And as I mentioned earlier, the potential for these cap hits to go down could spell

Starting point is 00:22:06 more action for the Bengals in free agency, could spell the Bengals returning to the table with T. Hendrickson. And let's wrap up there with what's next. As Tom Pelliseros tweet about Jamar Chase and T. Higgins deal included the words next up, trying to work out a deal with Trey Hendrickson, the sides have been in contact recently. That does line up with what Tom Pelliserra said in his most recent report about the Bengals being back in contact with Trey's representation in recent days. We'll see if that moves. We'll see if this is the cork that needed to come out of the bottle before things can move

Starting point is 00:22:40 with Trey Hendrickson. But those teams have been, those sides have been in contact recently. The priority, according to Pelliserro, is working out a deal with Hendrickson could mean that all of Joe Burroughs checklist is done. And then we got to think about the guard position at the very least as well. And we talked about that on the other show we did earlier on Sunday, James. But there are other things for the Bengals to do here. But as Jordan Schultz reported, if these capits are indeed going down, as he suggested,

Starting point is 00:23:12 that does spell more activity coming for the Bengals in this free agency period that's been unusually quiet for the last few days. Yeah. they need to get moving. And add to this roster, there's no doubt. I think the Trey thing is going to come. One, I know he wants to be in Cincinnati. Like deep down wants to be in Cincinnati. But I don't know how far apart they are money-wise.

Starting point is 00:23:38 And so now are these structured in a way? Is the cap hit in a way? Because Trey's cap hit will go up. If he gets more money, his cap-hits going to go up. So maybe that's what they're. we're waiting on is like, hey, we want to handle Trey. We also want to hopefully sign I'll throw out a name, Brandon Shirf. I know Tavon Jenkins is visiting Seattle today now Monday. We'll see. I don't think they're going after Tavitt anymore. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe they get that done now

Starting point is 00:24:06 because everything else is sorted out. But you have to address the guard spot. And it would be really nice to get this resolved with Trey and do it in a way where he's happy. He feels respected. you also have the flexibility to continue to add. Because let's be honest here, if they had one guard, they'd certainly be better off adding two guards because the one is replacing Kappa, which you need to. And the other one, as of now, is either Cordell-Voson, who you bench for Cody Ford or Cody Ford,

Starting point is 00:24:38 who is a backup for Cordell-Voson for most of last season. And I like Ford and his versatility and playing multiple spots, but I don't think anyone views him as a legitimate starter. And so do you want to put that much pressure on a rookie? I don't. So I would prefer two veteran options, even if one is competing with Ford for that starting job, but Ford and a rookie for that starting job. So we'll see what they do there.

Starting point is 00:25:02 Obviously, pass rush, you can't have enough of it. Ideally, they add a guard and then another guard and then another pass pressure after getting tray done. That's an ideal world, not necessarily what they're going to do. But either way, I think it does give them some clarity, and that tray is going to be the next domino. here that they really focus on outside of the guard spot. Yeah, that's why the cap hits will be so fascinating for Jamar and T if we do get a look

Starting point is 00:25:26 at some of the structure for those deals anytime soon and have a better idea of what that impact will be. That will tell us a lot about what the Bengals plans are. And that's why we pay attention to those things so closely. That's why that is interesting because they do still have a lot of work to do, ideally. And maybe more than ideally. Maybe there's a different word you could use there. They should be doing more work to improve the roster instead of just paying more for the

Starting point is 00:25:49 same team, like Duke Tobin said, and that was going to be necessary to some degree. Joe Burroughs' cap hit was going up. You were going to be paying more cash to Jamar Chase and T. Higgins to get these deals done. That's fine. But you can find additional pieces, and you can do all of it. That's why the cap hit piece is so interesting. We could see the biggest cash over cap year in Bengals history now with these two deals done, in addition to what they already have on the books for this season.

Starting point is 00:26:13 And that would be a fascinating aspect of this, too, after we saw them. treat the Trey Hendrickson negotiation in such a way that he ended up getting that opportunity to explore his trade market. So I do think that'll be really interesting. James, I have one last question for you here before we wrap up the podcast. With the Bengals having number one, number two wide receivers locked up for four years, how sad are you that they won't be drafting a wide receiver in the first round for probably at least two years?

Starting point is 00:26:45 Well, I still, I actually always, like, I could still see them draft. I have a receiver this year. It wouldn't shock. First round, though. First round, yeah. I'm not pumped by that. I'm excited by that. You know why?

Starting point is 00:26:59 Because I get to watch Jamar and T. That's the other element here. It's actually great. I get what you were doing, and you weren't expecting this. Doing a joke, okay? I'm doing a good. No doubt.

Starting point is 00:27:09 But here, but here's in all seriousness, all these bleepety bleepers out there are going to say that wide receivers grow on trees, and there is, literally zero guarantee that any wide receiver in this draft class will be as good as T. Higgins. Maybe, but it may take him three years. Not every wide receiver. Wide receivers don't grow on trees like T. And that's why he would have made $35 million in the open market if he had got there this year because the Patriots would have given up.

Starting point is 00:27:35 They would have sold their soul to Roger Goodell to get T. Higgins on their roster this year. They really would have. They called Roger and told him that. And so, yeah, it's a beautiful place to be in. I still think that they'll always be in the wide receiver market. You can never have enough of them if you're the Bengals in a past first team. But first round, I agree with you. And that's a great place to be. By the way, just a quick note, audio listeners, don't worry about this. But if you are on our live stream, we're about to end the pod. But we're going to hang around and answer some of your questions. So don't go anywhere. Yeah. For those listeners, we're doing our first live show here. I love that in that analogy, James, Roger Goodell is the devil that is making

Starting point is 00:28:12 a deal for someone's soul in the Patriots. So somehow not after the scandals around the Patriots. Anyway, that's going to do it for this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Deals done for T. Higgins and Jamar Chase. We'll have more to talk about as far as what's next for this team as they tried to get the rest of the roster into championship shape for 2025. And we'll have plenty of time to do that in the coming days here on Lockdown Bengals. Until then, thanks for listening to this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Ho-Day. Have a good one.

Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - HISTORY! | 4-year extensions for Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins DONE!

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