Cincinnati Bengals Signing Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins Exclusive Report

Cincinnati Bengals On SI

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00:00You ring the bell for occasions like this. When we get news that has been exclusively reported

00:06on BengalsTalk.com and then right here on Cincinnati Bengals Talk, the Bengals finalizing

00:11contract extensions with Jamar Chase and T. Higgins. The deal is done, one source told me,

00:16familiar with the situation. And another one saying how it could have been finalized and

00:21done on Friday. And that's why you saw all of the national reports about how confident they

00:27were in it getting done. And the figures started to come out, numbers and all of those things.

00:32And I think NFL Network was the first to get that out. But the deals are in the process of

00:37being finalized now. It's going to get done. Jamar Chase is going to get done. T. Higgins

00:42is going to get done. And it's just huge, huge news for the Cincinnati Bengals. Let's start

00:48with Jamar Chase. On pace to be the best receiver in Bengals history, if you don't think that

00:52already. Certainly the most accomplished through the first four years of his career of any

00:57Bengals wide receiver in team history. And he's coming off of the Triple Crown year,

01:01where he leads the NFL in receptions with a buck 27, 1,708 yards, receiving yards as well,

01:06and receiving touchdowns, 17, led in all three categories, just the fifth player

01:11since the merger to do so. And so obviously this was a high priority for the Bengals. This was high

01:16priority for Jamar Chase to get a contract extension in cash in now. And he's going to

01:21become the highest paid non-quarterback in NFL history. His contract expected to be in the $41

01:26million range. I don't have the final details of the contract structure or anything like that,

01:32but I would expect to see a four certainly on the Jamar Chase contract. I expect it to be a four

01:38year contract extension as well. As far as T. Higgins is concerned, man, this one, I remember

01:45getting laughed at by people that worked at the Bengals. Just the idea of them keeping both of

01:51these guys four or five months ago. And by worked, I'm just talking with security and stuff like

01:56that. It's just no one really thought they would keep both. And I think, one, Joe Burrow looked

02:05around and said, hey, I better make sure that T. Higgins stays. Two, T. Higgins looked around and

02:10said, do I want to go through another year of uncertainty or do I want to hang out in Cincinnati

02:16with Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase and chase a championship at the Bengals? And I think that's

02:20the other element here is the fact that T. Higgins switched agents, went from David Mulligetta to

02:25Rocky Arsenault. Rocky and his team at Alliance Sports did a good job of navigating these waters,

02:32of making sure that, yeah, Jamar's a priority for the Bengals, but he better be a priority as well.

02:37T. Higgins' next contract, this contract extension is going to be worth up to right around in that

02:44$30 million range. I think it might be a tad shy of $30 million per year, but it's getting done.

02:49And it's just a huge move for the Cincinnati Bengals. And it's a big move for both of these

02:55receivers. And it's important for Joe Burrow as well. Joe wanted these guys because, quite frankly,

03:00they need their studs. They need their stars. I was talking with a Bengals veteran, not this past

03:06camp, the camp before that. And he told me, they better keep these guys. And he looked and I was

03:15like, oh, well, Joe, this is before Joe's contract was done. He was like, well, yeah, of course, Joe.

03:19He was like, no, but Jamar and T. And I was like, oh, you want to keep both of them? And of course,

03:25I was on that bandwagon. But the answer is yes, because those two, Jamar and T together,

03:32strike fear in opposing defenses. The veteran that told me that was on the Bengals defense.

03:37And he had no benefit of telling me that. We were just talking ball a little bit and talking

03:44about the future and talking about things. And he's like, yeah, better keep that guy.

03:48And so very, very significant that T did what he needed to do to stay. And the Bengals did what

03:54they needed to do to keep him here in Cincinnati. It's huge news to get these done. Obviously,

03:59there's other stuff. We're going to talk about other stuff. It's been a long week. We've talked

04:02about all the other stuff. I'm going to make this video strictly about T, strictly about Jamar.

04:06The deals are getting done. The Bengals, I think, deserve credit for it. I also think that these

04:12receivers do as well, because they could have drugged this out longer. It could have been a

04:16thing. It could have been one of these things where Jamar wants to wait out Micah Parsons,

04:23where T Higgins looks at the DK Metcalf deal, and he looks around the league, and he looks at what

04:28he could have, would have, should have made if he was a free agent and not tagged for a second time.

04:31And it could have gotten in the way, could have gotten ugly. And it really didn't. Now,

04:36you can talk about what the Bengals did or haven't done, did or didn't do this week when it comes to

04:42getting these other contracts done in free agency. But prioritizing your stars, I'm never going to

04:48get mad at them for that. The only thing they did wrong here is not get these deals done sooner.

04:53Two years ago, when I was having that conversation with that veteran, they could have signed T

04:56Higgins then. Obviously, there were some agent issues. Fine. But you got to be able to work with

05:01anyone. And so you can be critical of the Bengals there for not getting T Higgins done two years

05:07ago or last year. Same thing with Jamar not getting it done last year. But the bottom line is,

05:13did it get done? And the answer with these two is it's yes. It's finalized, or it's in the process

05:21of being finalized. Excuse me. We're talking about real minor details here, ladies and gentlemen,

05:25that happen before any of these big contracts get agreed to fully. But both sides expect this

05:33to get done or anticipating it's getting done. And like I said, basically, it is done.

05:40Again, they're in the process of where you buy a car, where you go up to the loan person and

05:46they're offering you a warranty that you don't necessarily want. They're at that part where,

05:52yeah, you're buying the car. It's done. You just got to bat your eyes, cross your T's,

05:56and get it finalized. So be on the lookout for contract details. But certainly,

06:02if you want more details about this, I wrote them at BengalsTalk.com. It's going to be the main

06:08story there for the rest of Saturday, for sure. And huge, huge news as far

06:13as the Bengal Star Wide Receivers go.

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