CINCINNATI — The most important offseason in Bengals history enters arguably its most critical week.
In the last five days leading up to Monday’s free agency tampering period, the Browns extended Myles Garrett at four years and $160 million, completely reversing the trade demand narrative out of Cleveland and offering Browns fans hope that the franchise is still serious about building around its best and most dominant player of this century.
More importantly to the Bengals, the pricetag for Chase went up even higher. The $40 million AAV and the $122.8 million guaranteed are both the most for a non-quarterback in NFL history.
Duke Tobin, Bengals director of player personnel, said at the NFL Combine that the Bengals understand that Chase will be the highest paid non-quarterback in the NFL. “We’re there.” How much did the Garrett deal move the “there”? We might have to wait a while to find out.
The Steelers got aggressive and outbid the New England Patriots and traded to Seattle a second round pick this season for the services of star receiver DK Metcalf, who will team with George Pickens as a dynamically explosive if not internally combustable combination for whoever will be the quarterback in 2025.
In addition to the trade, the Steelers came to terms on a four-year, $132 million deal that will pay the wide receiver $33.5 million a season, well north of what the original settling point was thought to be with Tee Higgins.
By not getting the Chase and Higgins’ deals done earlier, the Bengals cost themselves at least $20 million each. And that’s being conservative. The number is more likely around $30-35 million when you figure in guarantees, especially the Garrett deal. The Bengals may have thought they were catching a break when Garrett demanded a trade, only to have Cleveland not receive any offers because of the “negative” structure of the back-end of the deal.
Or maybe the collective thinking of the Bengals front office was that no one was going to trade for Garrett, given the implications of the end of the current contract and also part with massive draft capital. The Browns likely knew this all along. They knew they had to restructure Deshaun Watson’s massive contract to make this work and they did.
Once upon a time in the not-so-recent past (circa 2023), the Bengals had the opportunity of signing Tee Higgins and Ja’Marr Chase and extending them for another four-to-five seasons together, the Bengals face the prospects of having to commit $265 million to keep both, or somewhere in the neighborhood of $600 million for three players with roughly $450 million of that guaranteed.
They would’ve saved themselves tens of millions. But in fairness to the Bengals, David Mulugheta, Tee Higgins’ former agent, was never going to renegotiate with the Bengals without letting Higgins test the open market. With Chase, that is turning out to be a more massive – and preventable – miscalculation. Chase was clearly offended by the team’s first offer last spring, which he didn’t consider serious. It didn’t get closer until later in training camp and by that time the two sides were too far apart and the Bengals decided not to move from their number and it resulted in a Ja’Marr Chase “hold-in” during camp.
“Luckily, Ja’Marr, he’s under contract, so like, he’s got to be here, but it’s just that he deserves what he deserves,” newly minted Mike Gesicki told me. “You’re waiting for just that congratulations of him to say that. And then obviously Tee getting the tag, I got tagged once, like there’s so many different avenues that you can take. But that’s just another guy that you just wanted that guy in your organization for so many different reasons because of the person that he is and the player that he is. So I do understand his side of it because when you get tagged, there are so many different ways you can handle it, and I think that he handles it incredibly, and just another guy that you hope he gets what he deserves, so I can text him and say, ‘Nah, you’re rich, bro.”
Who knows when – or if – the Bengals will get these two massive offensive issues resolved in the next week as free agency reaches full throttle.
They are going to have more to resolve in the coming weeks, much more. And they started to address those needs on Monday with several moves, both in terms of bringing back foundation pieces from the existing roster, a player returning from a previous stint with the team and a new piece they hope will stabilize the defensive front.
Gesicki Monday signed his three-year, $25.5 million deal, extending him through the 2027 season.
Gesicki signed with the Bengals as an unrestricted free agent last offseason. He played in all 17 games with three starts for Cincinnati in 2024, and caught 65 passes for 665 yards and two touchdowns. His 65 catches were the second-most in any season of his career and the second-most by a tight end in a season in Bengals history.
“I definitely knew that I was gonna take the Joe Burrow tax,” Gesicki said of taking less to play with “the best quarterback on the planet.”
“So, I knew that and I was like, I’m cool with it. And so it makes it easy to come back to a place like this with a head coach like Zac Taylor with an offense coordinator like Dan Pitcher, and, tight end coach James Casey, my guy Brad Kragthorpe, who draws up the third down plan. There’s so many different guys that were in the back of my mind as I’m thinking about, ‘Do I test the market?’ and you hear about your value and all that kind of stuff and what it could be. At that point, this is what I wanted, and I think that this place gives me everything that I’m looking for.”
With 56 tackles and three sacks last season, the Bengals have been very happy with the steady play of Hill but need more interior pass rush. At three years, $33 million and $16 million guaranteed, the Bengals hope they can bring Hill back, build him around an anchor-type nose (continue reading below) and allow him to be more explosive in the three-tech spot, as he was in 2021 and ’22 when he played with the likes of DJ Reader and Larry Ogunjobi. Hill signed for three-years, $30 million after the 2021 season. Hill agrees to his second three-year deal.
The 29-year-old running back returns to the team that made a Super Bowl and an AFC Championship in 2021 and ’22 when he served as Joe Mixon’s change-of-pace back and pass protector. He’ll now do the same for Chase Brown. The price is right at two years, $3.8 million. Perine played last season with Kansas City, with 28 catches on 35 targets. He carried the ball 20 times for 92 yards, and a touchdown. In three seasons with the Bengals, Perine carried the ball 203 times for 941 yards, with six rushing touchdowns and five receiving scores.
The Bengals thought they might have had something when they signed Sheldon Rankins last season but due to injury and illness, he never found his groove for Cincinnati. Slaton is the classic nose tackle that can take up two blockers in the run game and not be moved. His pricetag? Just two years, $15 million. A typical Bengal low-risk/high reward signing, just like Rankins. The 6-foot-4, 330-pound Slaton started all 17 games for Green Bay last year, recording 30 tackles, one sack, three QB hits, and two tackles for loss.
The Bengals are going to reshuffle their interior offensive line. They have already released starting right guard Alex Cappa and are bringing in bodies to push Cordell Volson at left guard. They have brought back Jaxson Kirkland and then, on Monday during legal tampering, the Bengals came to terms on a two-year, $6 million extension with guard Cody Ford. Ford, who will be a seventh-year player in 2025, joined the Bengals as an unrestricted free agent in the ‘23 offseason. He has played in 33 games for Cincinnati and made 10 starts — five at LOT, two at LG, two as a third TE and one at ROT, making him the most versatile lineman on the roster.
On the outside, critics of the Bengals will look at how the Patriots, Steelers and Browns all made big moves Monday. All three teams are clearly flawed. Bengals fans want their team to make moves to immediately address their biggest needs in a flashy manner. That’s never been how the Bengals have really done business. Yes, the Patriots rebuilt the heart of their defense with Milton Williams, Carlton Davis, Robert Spillane and Harold Landry. They spent a collective $268 million to do it.
Cincinnati’s biggest splash is yet to come, or at least it better be.
The lesson of this week: Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins are undeniably the biggest names and storylines hanging heavy over the franchise. It may not have had to be that way. But now we’re here at free agency 2025 and the Bengals have a roster to rebuild, whether or not fans and outside experts question their approach and claims of cap space and cash on hand.
