It hasn't even been 12 months since the Cincinnati Bengals fully stepped out of their comfort zone. Handing franchise quarterback Joe Burrow a five-year, $275 million contract extension not only made NFL history as the largest deal in terms of average annual value, the $146.510 million of fully guaranteed cash put every other contract in franchise history to absolute shame.
It's the literal price of having an elite QB nowadays. Wide receivers like Ja'Marr Chase don't cost quite as much, but the gap is narrowing tremendously fast. Chase is in the same spot as Burrow was last year, entering year four with two years of his rookie contract remaining thanks to the fifth-year option. The only difference is he's performing a "hold-in" by attending training camp practice but not participating on the field .
The spotlight was all on Burrow's contract last year, even after he injured his calf while practicing before the deal was signed, but both his side and the Bengals agreed to keep talks of negotiations internally. We didn't know if progress had stalled or an agreement was imminent until the agreement was made the Thursday night prior to Week 1.
Chase is creating a spotlight for himself by holding in, which has begun spawning reports of negotiations between his side and the team. Now is a good time to remember if the team wanted to keep Burrow's contract on the low, they'll do the same with Chase.
The mega-deal Burrow signed was a glass ceiling Cincinnati needed to break through in order to progress from a team-building standpoint. The Brown family couldn't afford to offer non-guaranteed salaries to the prince of the Queen City.
The contract was unlike any that came before it, but the process of getting there and wading through potential media turmoil remained the same as it's always been.
Predicting the players the Bengals give a lot of money to is easy. Predicting when and how negotiations are in the current moment is designed to be impossible. Paycor Stadium acts like the offspring of Fort Knox and a black hole when it comes to these details. Publicizing talks is not how they like to conduct business, and when the player's side breaks that, it usually isn't a good sign.
Take Tee Higgins as an example here. His trade request became public, as did reports of how far apart his representation and ownership were in negotiations that had apparently stalled for a year. It's no mystery how that information got out as Higgins' representation played the PR game to get the Bengals to budge.
Higgins is now participating in training camp, getting ready to play on the franchise tag.
There haven't been any inflammatory reports of Chase and Cincinnati being far apart yet, in fact, everything that's been said has been positive. Mike Brown took the opportunity in his lone annual speaking setting to say the franchise will " bend over backwards " to eventually lock him in for the long-term.
A week later, The 33rd Team's NFL insider Ari Meirov spoke on Chase's extension, saying he expects a deal to come soon.
"They're working on it right now, and I do anticipate a deal probably getting done," Meirov said. "I'm not saying for sure, but I would lean towards getting done than not."
Solid hedge there from Meirov, and why wouldn't he? He's talking about a notoriously tight-lipped club.
I'm not sayin Meirov's report is unfounded, but in the history of the Bengals, getting a gauge on contract negotiations is a tough egg to crack. Taking the battle to the media is the opposite of their modus operandi. And it's never their side who does so.
In short, no news oftentimes means good news for the Bengals reaching agreements with their star players. Keep that in mind as Chase's case develops.
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