When it comes to the contract talks between Ja'Marr Chase and the Bengals, both sides managed to keep a tight lid on how negotiations were going in the lead-up to Cincinnati's opener. However, it looks like some information has finally leaked out.
Before the Bengals' Week 1 game against the Patriots, Chase had mentioned that the two sides were "pretty close" to getting a deal done and it seems that the only reason it didn't happen is because Chase and the Bengals couldn't come to an agreement on one key detail.
Let's take a look at where things stand:
- Bengals made a record-setting offer. Chase wants to be the highest-paid player in the NFL and the Bengals were actually willing to make that happen. According to James Rapien, who covers the team for Sports Illustrated, the Bengals offered Chase a four-year, $140 million extension. At $35 million per year, that would put Chase in a tie with Justin Jefferson for the title of highest-paid receiver in NFL history.
- The key details of the deal. Getting a big contract isn't all about average annual value, players also want a lot of guaranteed money. The offer from the Bengals included $90 million in practical guarantees along with a $30 million signing bonus. Jefferson's contract included $110 million in guarantees, so the Bengals weren't quite matching that part of Jefferson's deal.
- Why Chase didn't accept the deal. According to SI, Chase didn't like the structure of the guarantees. The Bengals were looking to pay them out by 2027, but Chase wanted them sooner.
- Why the Bengals might not be willing to do that. The Bengals have been doing business the same way for years: The only fully guaranteed money a player gets comes during the first year of his deal and that's usually in the form of a signing bonus. In this instance, Chase would get a $30 million signing bonus, but if the Bengals were sticking to their standard structure, Chase would essentially have rolling guarantees and his full $90 million in practical guarantees wouldn't be paid out until 2027. The issue there is that if things went south before 2027, the Bengals could theoretically dump Chase before all the money became guaranteed.
To put that in perspective, let's look at Jefferson's deal. The Vikings receiver is getting $88.74 million fully guaranteed at signing. His practical guarantee is $110 million, which means that money is expected to be earned.
In 2024, Jefferson has a fully guaranteed signing bonus ($36.94 million) and a fully guaranteed base salary ($1.125 million). In 2025, he has a fully guaranteed option bonus ($30 million) along with a fully guaranteed based salary ($1.17 million), a fully guaranteed workout bonus ($250,000) and a total of $510,000 in per-game roster bonuses that he get paid for being active each week. This essentially means that Jefferson will get to take home $70 million of his guarantees by the end of the 2025 season. Also, if the Vikings were to cut him in 2024 or 2025, he'd walk away with his full guarantee of $88.74 million.
Although it's not exactly clear how Chase's contract would be structured, the Bengals will generally give you a signing bonus and they've also been know to tack on a a roster bonus in your second year, but that's usually the extent of their guarantees. Joe Burrow is the only player who has been given guarantees beyond the first year, so Chase is clearly looking for them to make an exception for him like they did for Burrow.
When Orlando Brown signed with the Bengals in March 2023, he got a four-year, $64.09 million deal. He was given a $31.1 million signing bonus, but that was the only fully guaranteed money in his contract, so not even 50% of his contract was guaranteed.
As for Burrow, a big chunk of his guaranteed money came from a $40 million signing bonus and a $55 million option bonus for 2024, according to OverTheCap. That put $95 million in Burrow's pocket in the first 12 months of the deal. If you combine that with his base salary for 2023 ($1.01 million) and 2024 ($10.71 million), that means Burrow will be getting north of $105 million by the end of the 2024 season.
If Chase were able to talk the Bengals into something similar, that means he'd get a good chunk of his money by the end of the 2025 season, but as SI notes, the Bengals want to wait until 2027 before they let his guarantees vest.
Before Week 1, Chase was asked how his contract talks were going and he gave an interesting answer. "I want to say we're off a little bit, but it's in reach," the receiver said on Sept. 6. "I'd say we're pretty close. A few numbers need to be switched around and changed other places, but I'll say we're pretty close."
Chase said the two sides were close, and now, we know how close they were. It's not clear if the Bengals will continue to negotiate with Chase now that the season has started -- they historically have not negotiated during the season -- but the two sides definitely got close to a deal, they just haven't been able to overcome this one sticking point.
