Overall, it was a fine offseason. The defense will be led by Al Golden<\/a>, so there should be at least a slight improvement there. At the same time, the guard positions are massive question marks. As a result, ESPN<\/a> was not quite as high on the Bengals\u2019 offseason as a whole, giving the team a C+.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Bengals\u2019 offseason is defined by the two stars they paid \u2014 Ja\u2019Marr Chase<\/a> and Tee Higgins<\/a> \u2014 and the one they haven\u2019t, Hendrickson<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s address the receivers first. Coming off a season in which he led the league with 1,708 receiving yards on 127 receptions, Chase was certainly going to get the raise he deserved. But he really got paid. Sometimes, when players receive record-breaking contracts, it\u2019s a product of natural progression, moving in line with the cap\u2019s rise. This was not that. Chase\u2019s $40.25 million APY extension is the highest in OverTheCap.com\u2019s historical wide receiver contract list<\/a>\u00a0even if we adjust for salary cap inflation.<\/p>\n \u201cHiggins did well from an APY standpoint, too, earning $28.75 million per year \u2014 just a shade above Keenan Allen<\/a>\u2018s and Amari Cooper<\/a>\u2018s deals in 2020 when adjusting for cap inflation. It\u2019s perhaps a shade more than I\u2019d pay Higgins, but it made sense to bring these two players back. The combination of quarterback Joe Burrow<\/a>, Chase, and Higgins resulted in the seventh-highest EPA per dropback last season, even though the Bengals ranked last in pass block win rate and had a middling run game. Passing success is their recipe for winning.<\/p>\n \u201cCincinnati\u2019s season cratered because of its defense despite the best efforts of Hendrickson, who led the league with 17.5 sacks. But Hendrickson is in a contract dispute and was granted permission to seek a trade<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cSure, one could argue that the Bengals shouldn\u2019t jump to pay a huge amount to a 30-year-old pass rusher. But they\u2019re contenders, and he\u2019s a critical piece of that puzzle. And Cincinnati easily has the cap space to do it! It has $33 million available this year and $56 million in 2026. The Bengals ought to be locking Hendrickson in to try to make a title run.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know the exact circumstances, but if this is a cash-flow issue, I have little sympathy: Ownership\u2019s job is to try to field a winning team. In the hard-capped, revenue-sharing NFL, teams must be able to pay to the cap.<\/p>\n \u201cCincinnati also fired Lou Anarumo<\/a>\u00a0and brought in Al Golden\u00a0as defensive coordinator<\/a>. A shake-up was necessary, and any defensive regression to the mean would be a positive.<\/p>\n \u201cHendrickson was not the Bengals\u2019 only contract dispute. First-round edge Shemar Stewart<\/a>\u00a0has\u00a0yet to practice and left minicamp<\/a> due to a contract dispute based on language the team wants to use on his deal. The situation does not reflect well on Cincinnati.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Bengals also re-signed defensive tackle B.J. Hill<\/a>\u00a0at\u00a0$11 million per year<\/a>\u00a0and brought back tight end\u00a0Mike Gesicki<\/a>\u00a0on an\u00a0$8.5 million per year deal<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Fair?<\/p>\n A C+ may be fine for a GEN-ED history course in which you never paid attention, but for a team in the midst of a Super Bowl window with one of the best quarterbacks in the league, it\u2019s not going to get it done.<\/p>\n Fowler gets it; it\u2019s an ownership thing. The Brown\/Blackburn family is not strapped for cash. Why they continue to pinch pennies when it comes to the only noteworthy defender and their top two draft picks is befuddling.<\/p>\n Extending Chase and Higgins was massive. It showed that they were invested in fielding a top-end offense\u2026but they ignored the guard situation as there were plenty of veteran guards out there. Drafting two is fine, and Fairchild is expected to be the next man up at left guard, but if you start Week 1 with Cody Ford<\/a> or Lucas Patrick at right guard, you invite well-deserved scrutiny.<\/p>\n On July 11, with Hendrickson in limbo and a few others who could be extended, the Bengals have the seventh-most effective cap space with nearly $32 million to spend. When you\u2019re trying to take advantage of Burrow\u2019s career, why not use up as much of that cap space as possible?<\/p>\n Main Image: \u00a0Sam Greene\/The Enquirer \/ USA TODAY NETWORK<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This offseason was the latest \u201cmost important offseason in franchise history,\u201d according to those who cover the Cincinnati…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[228,227,256,6977,2296,7,8633,1577,6,2978,1503],"class_list":{"0":"post-200871","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-bengals","8":"tag-bengals","9":"tag-cincinnati","10":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","11":"tag-cincinnati-bengals-roster","12":"tag-cincinnatibengals","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-jamarr-chase","15":"tag-joe-burrow","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-tee-higgins","18":"tag-trey-hendrickson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114839130213941594","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/USATSI_25509943_168400545_lowres-1024x683.jpg\")
Cincinnati Bengals wide receivers Tee Higgins (5) and Ja\u2019Marr Chase (1) celebrate a touchdown during a game on Nov. 17, 2024.<\/p>\n