Bengals exec addresses future of Tee Higgins, Ja’Marr Chase with Cincinnati

This offseason will be pivotal to the Cincinnati Bengals’ future. Tee Higgins will be a free agent this offseason unless the Bengals sign him to a new long-term deal or franchise tag him again.

However, the organization must be cognizant of other upcoming paydays. After all, star wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase will be a free agent after this season and the team certainly wants to secure his future in Cincinnati.

At the NFL Scouting Combine on Tuesday, Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin addressed the Bengals’ impending roster decisions, starting with Tee Higgins.

“Tee Higgins is a fantastic football player, and I want him on my football team,” Tobin said. “Whenever I’m in charge of a football team, I want Tee Higgins, and so I’m going to do what I can to get Tee Higgins. Our preference with Tee Higgins is to do a long-term agreement. Always has been, it continues to be, and we’ll work hard to get that done.

“We are fortunate. We’ve got a lot of really good football players, fantastic football players, and we’re fortunate to be in a position to where we can fit them all in. We’ve managed our cap well. We’ve got low dead money. We want a high payroll and low dead money, so the people that are in Cincinnati playing for us can get all the money. That’s what we want. And we’re in a position to re-sign these guys.”

Higgins will become a free agent on March 12 if he and the Bengals cannot agree on a new deal. If the Bengals begin to feel like they will not be able to come to agreement with Higgins, they have until March 4 to use their franchise tag on the former Clemson standout.

If the Bengals did so, Higgins would have $26.17 million salary in 2025. Higgins played under a franchise tag of $21.8 million in 2024.

It’ll be even more expensive for the Bengals to lock in Ja’Marr Chase’s future with the team. Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Bengals plan on making Chase the highest-paid non-QB in the NFL.

“We’re going to reward Ja’Marr,” Tobin said.

Chase led the NFL in receiving yards (1,708), touchdowns (17) and receptions (127) last season. The Minnesota Vikings’ Justin Jefferson is currently the highest-paid wide receiver in the NFL, earning an average of $35 million a year. To keep Chase around for the foreseeable future, the Bengals will likely have to top this number.