Bengals extend Chase (4 yrs $161mill) AND Higgins (4 yrs $115mill)

[Mr. WEO]

1 hour ago, Doc Brown said:

It was like asking Dale Earnhardt to win a race in a Prius.  How do you think the Bengals made the Super Bowl in the 2021 season?

 

with the 7th ranked Offense...plus the good fortune of having to get past the Titans and the Raiders before the Chiefs.

 

The Defense improved to 6th in scoring in 2022, then cratered. Compare this to the Bills: #1 and #2 Defense 2021/2022.  After that McD pushed Frazier into the easy chair and took over. 

[ColoradoBills]

2 hours ago, FireChans said:

Hard to believe we have a better QB, a better coaching staff, a better owner and a better FO than the Bengals and they’ve beaten KC in the playoffs and went a Super Bowl before us. 
 

I know it sucks having players that deserve 30 or 40M AAV deals. I’d much rather have 20 AJ Epenesas. 

 

Good grief.  Your hatred of all thing Buffalo Bills has worn me out to reading any more.

All you do is dis this team.

[AlCowlingsTaxiService]

19 hours ago, Low Positive said:

I live in Cincinnati and have to live with their smug fans. Ever since they got Burrow, they have this "us against the world" attitude. I was hoping that Mike Brown's finances would finally break that up, but instead I have to listen to Duke Tobin's "get your own" crap for years to come. Remember that "get your refunds" BS? I hate Burrow's smug baby face on every billboard in town. Did you know that he's "not just your average Joe?" Because Kroger tells you that from every highway in town. I hate that every person in town walks around in ugly orange shirts with tiger stripes. 

IDK man … sounds similar to Buffalo, albeit with different colors 

[FireChans]

18 minutes ago, ColoradoBills said:

 

Good grief.  Your hatred of all thing Buffalo Bills has worn me out to reading any more.

All you do is dis this team.

I legitimately think that nobody on the planet loves the Buffalo Bills more than me

[NoSaint]

3 hours ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

You could probably replace those names with all our own players we extended.

 

I know that doesnt follow the exact path of your conversation, but it is relevant to the overall discussion of the Bengals FO/Mike Brown and how they build a team (od dont).

 

To rewind the tape all the way back to the beginning, I think if the Bengals were an organization that, like the Bills, extends players early it changes everything.

 

Assuming they did it the "right" way, they would already have Chase and Hendrickson re-signed. By having them re-signed early, they would have 1. likely saved some money, and 2. at least give the illusion of being proactive and having a plan. So that when they don't re-sign Higgins, instead of looking inept and like they are always playing catch up from a position of weakness, they could say "we have a lot of guys to pay, we paid all the guys in our plan, can't pay everyone".

 

Then, with the money they're saving with early extensions and the money they are saving by being able to choose to not pay Higgins, they could take that and sign other FAs.

 

It's just another perspective on why teams like the Bills and Eagles are doing it right, and teams like the Cowboys and Bengals are doing it wrong.

I think I’m more “meh” than most on the early extensions. 
 

I think more often than not over the course of a career they tend to even out quite a bit in overall value.

 

sure some risk/reward with injuries vs jumps forward but the classic 4 for 50 (12.5m) for cook isn’t a tremendous value vs 5m followed by 15 per (using bar napkins)

[FitzShowUsYourTitz]

22 hours ago, Low Positive said:

I live in Cincinnati and have to live with their smug fans. Ever since they got Burrow, they have this "us against the world" attitude. I was hoping that Mike Brown's finances would finally break that up, but instead I have to listen to Duke Tobin's "get your own" crap for years to come. Remember that "get your refunds" BS? I hate Burrow's smug baby face on every billboard in town. Did you know that he's "not just your average Joe?" Because Kroger tells you that from every highway in town. I hate that every person in town walks around in ugly orange shirts with tiger stripes. 

One of the best posts ever!

yep

[Billl]

On 3/16/2025 at 8:07 PM, Warcodered said:

Feels like this team has to be extremely top heavy. Like how do you pay that many skill players on Offense top money and not have massive holes all over the team.

Buffalo just paid $31 million to not have Diggs play for them, and they made the AFCCG.  If they can survive that, Cincinnati can survive paying $80 million for Chase and Higgins.  Every roster problem in this league can be solved by drafting well.  The Bengals have 3 superstars, 4 if you count Higgins.  They are one great draft away from being serious contenders for the foreseeable future.

[Thurman#1]

18 hours ago, BuffaloBillyG said:

Good for the players to get paid. The offense will be fun to watch as always. 

 

That said, is there any QB in history that's been propped up by the talent around him more than Burrow? Going back to his historical season coming out of college when he has Chase and Jefferson to the NFL where he has Chase and Higgins? I'm not saying he's not talented...he is. 

 

But switch him and Allen out. Drop Burrow on the Bills offense and this is a 9-10 win team. Drop Allen in that offense with those weapons and it would more than mask the defense and OL issues and Cincinnati may be a 14-15 win team. IMO

 

Sorry when you have to pay this much to elite WRs you do not have an elite QB. You have Justin Herbert with more talent around him.

 

 

Greatly disagree with what you say would happen if we switched QBs.

 

IMO you put Burrow in here and we maybe lose 1 or 2 more games than we did. I don't think Burrow has been the problem in Cincy, except of course the year he was injured. He's on a relatively poor roster. He's damn good. Not as good as Josh, but damn good.

 

And if you put Josh in that Cincy lineup they win  1 or 2 more games. Their offense is not their problem, 6th in the league in scoring and 9th in yards last year, while we were 2nd in scoring and 10th in yards.

 

I do agree, though, that signing both these two WRs is not a good move. IMO they should have re-signed Chase and let Higgins go, and take the comp pick. And worked on the OL and the defense.

 

[Thurman#1]

7 hours ago, Mr. WEO said:

 

with the 7th ranked Offense...plus the good fortune of having to get past the Titans and the Raiders before the Chiefs.

 

The Defense improved to 6th in scoring in 2022, then cratered. Compare this to the Bills: #1 and #2 Defense 2021/2022.  After that McD pushed Frazier into the easy chair and took over. 

 

 

Frazier quit.

 

Those who disagree have nothing but their own perceptions to back that up. There's never been a single fact from inside that supports it.

 

But yes, the Bengals had a playoff schedule that was an absolute gift for the first two games. And Mahomes had a terrible game in the AFC Championship. Was the Bengals D part of that? Yeah, but Mahomes was missing passes he usually makes, a bunch of them.

[Thurman#1]

2 hours ago, Billl said:

Buffalo just paid $31 million to not have Diggs play for them, and they made the AFCCG.  If they can survive that, Cincinnati can survive paying $80 million for Chase and Higgins.  Every roster problem in this league can be solved by drafting well.  The Bengals have 3 superstars, 4 if you count Higgins.  They are one great draft away from being serious contenders for the foreseeable future.

 

Buffalo did pay that dead money for Diggs. Know how much the cap hits for the other WRs was last year? $9,595,137.

 

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/buffalo-bills/position/_/year/2024/position/wr/status/active-reserve

 

Bills WR cap money $40.6M

 

Chase and Higgins AAV total $80M

 

The Bills are not a good argument for saying that Cincy will be OK spending $80M on two receivers. 

 

And yeah, I get that the cap situation in Cincy is more complex than just those adding the AAVs of Chase and Higgins. Still the Bills don't support the idea that what Cincy did can work. It certainly is possible it might work, though I doubt it, but the Bills situation last year was greatly different.

[Doc Brown]

8 hours ago, Mr. WEO said:

 

with the 7th ranked Offense...plus the good fortune of having to get past the Titans and the Raiders before the Chiefs.

 

The Defense improved to 6th in scoring in 2022, then cratered. Compare this to the Bills: #1 and #2 Defense 2021/2022.  After that McD pushed Frazier into the easy chair and took over. 

Yes.  Our defense was great against below average in average offenses.  The 2021 season was a weird year where the defense only allowed 12.6 points in our wins (9 of the 11 wins with offenses that ranked 19th or worse in Scoring).  The meltdown in Jacksonville and the opening game loss to the Steelers were the only exceptions. However, in their seven losses they allowed 28 ppg  and five were against teams that finished 14th or better on offense.  Kind of reinforced that this team's defense is built to smother below average to average offenses but struggles against top tier one's.  It hasn't changed much even with Frazier's departure.

 

As for the Bengals Super Bowl run.  The 13 seconds game the Bills didn't make any meaningful defensive adjustments in the 2nd half/overtime and they had 28 points scored on them because of it.  The Bengals gave up three points with lesser personnel were able to make the necessary 2nd half adjustments the next week in KC and I give Anarumo credit for that.

 

 

Edited 1 hour ago by Doc Brown