Will the Bengals Decision to Resign Their Offensive Talent Backfire?
The Bengals as a franchise are notorious for waiting to resign their star players to long-term contracts. This has earned the franchise the reputation for being cheap, which has largely contributed to the Bengals’ lack of success over the past several decades. When we look at other teams that have good ownership and management, like the Patriots or the Chiefs, over the past few decades, we see them consistently competing for championships and rarely overpaying players. Timing from the standpoint of the team’s front office can be the difference between building a championship-contending team and a non-playoff team.
An example of poor timing and execution from the Bengals front office was with the Ja’Marr Chase signing. Most teams sign their star players well before their contracts are coming to a close, but instead, the Bengals decided to wait on signing Chase. Justin Jefferson signed last offseason and got $140 million over four years from the Vikings after several stellar years with the team. If the Bengals had signed Chase last offseason, at the same time as Jefferson, they likely would have signed him to a similar deal to Jefferson. Instead, Chase re-signed with the Bengals last month after earning the triple crown of wide receiver stats in a contract year and ended up getting $161 million over four years. Additionally, the Bengals opted to put Tee Higgins on the franchise tag for several years before they finally signed him to a $115 million four-year contract as well. If the Bengals had signed their star wide receiver talents several years ago, they would’ve saved at least $15 million a year that they could have used to bolster the rest of the roster.
With the Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, and Tee Higgins contracts, the Bengals will be spending $124 million each year for the next several years on just three offensive players. With the NFL salary cap set at $279.2 million, this means the Bengals are spending nearly 45% of their total salary cap on just three players. Therefore, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Bengals had a top-10 offense in nearly every category but also had a bottom-10 defense as well. Therefore, with these signings, the Bengals are effectively doubling down on their strategy from the past few years. However, this defense is only going to get worse, and if last year’s record of 9-8 is any indication, this team won’t be able to win consistently or compete for a championship.
