Last offseason, the Bengals and star receiver Ja’Marr Chase could not come to an agreement on a long-term contract extension.
Chase the No. 5 overall pick of the 2021 draft, then went out and had the best season of his career by winning the triple crown — leading the league with 127 receptions, 1,708 yards, and 17 touchdowns.
He’s now set to enter the last year of his rookie contract as the price of a new deal has ostensibly gone up.
During the Senior Bowl this week, Bengals director of player personnel told Kelsey Conway of the Cincinnati Enquirer that signing Chase is “a priority for us.”
“It’s something we feel like there’s a framework to work off of. Should be a pretty easy framework to work off of,” Tobin said. “Guys in his position have recently re-done contracts. We believe in Ja’Marr, he’s very important to us. The other guys that have done contracts are very important to their teams. So, we believe there’s a real framework to work off of.
“I would expect that we could come together on something that makes sense for both sides.”
Conway noted that the reason why Chase rejected the last contract offer from the Bengals last summer was due to “cash flow.”
Cincinnati also will have to decide whether or not the club will pay to retain fellow receiver Tee Higgins in the coming weeks, as he’s set to become a free agent in March.
Bengals defensive end Trey Hendrickson has solidified himself as one of the NFL’s top edge rushers, finishing 2024 with a league-leading 17.5 sacks.
Cincinnati’s new defensive coordinator Al Golden — who was the club’s linebackers coach in Hendrickson’s first season with the franchise — told reporters this week that he’s looking to accentuate Hendrickson’s skills in 2025.
“I had so much respect and a great relationship when I was here last time and just watching him evolve as a pass rusher,” Golden said, via Geoff Hobson of the team’s website. “Our job is going to continue to put him in positions, No. 1, [that] earn the right to rush the passer. Get in more passing downs, and get him opportunities, and get him the matchup that we need. Make no mistake.
“When you have somebody like that, it’s job No. 1 to put them in position to continue to do that or surpass that.”
Hendrickson was an AP first-team All-Pro for the first time in 2024 and Golden sees the edge rusher as an example of the difference in coaching a veteran versus a young player.
“Trey’s going to want to be challenged and he’s going to want to be coached hard, but Trey has earned a different level of respect than perhaps a rookie that’s coming in,” Golden said. “I think you can treat people differently, but I think it’s really important that we try to coach them all the same, be uniform in terms of what the standard is and what the expectations are in each particular context, and then go from there.”
Hendrickson has reached double-digit sacks in three of his four seasons with Cincinnati. In addition to his 17.5 sacks in 2024, he recorded 19 tackles for loss, 36 quarterback hits, six passes defensed, and two forced fumbles.
The Bengals will not have one of their key young offensive players for the entirety of next season.
According to Paul Dehner Jr. of TheAthletic.com, tight end Erick All Jr. is expected to miss all of 2025 with a knee injury.
All tore his ACL in early November and it turns out there are complications from a previous knee surgery he underwent in college. All needs two surgeries instead of one in order to fix every issue.
All has a history of health concerns, including a back injury in 2022 and an ACL tear in 2023. With two surgeries to correct his latest knee issue, he should be able to play in 2026.
A fourth-round pick in 2024, All appeared in nine games with six starts as a rookie. He caught 20 passes for 158 yards.
The Bengals hired Al Golden as their new defensive coordinator late last week and they’ve started to fill out the rest of their defensive staff.
The team announced the hiring of defensive line coach/run game coordinator Jerry Montgomery and linebackers coach Mike Hodges on Monday.
Montgomery coached the defensive line in New England during the 2024 season and he spent the previous nine seasons on the Packers’ coaching staff. He was the defensive line coach for most of that tenure and added the run game coordinator title in his last two years with the team.
Hodges spent the last eight seasons with the Saints. He was their linebackers coach for the last five years.
One day at a time, the expiration of the Bengals’ lease at Paycor Stadium is getting closer and closer. It runs out next year, and landlord and tenant haven’t been getting along.
As explained by Chris Wetterich of the Cincinnati Business Courier, “tumult” exists between the two sides, which (as Wetterich puts it) “raises the obvious question about whether the Bengals have a decades-long future in Cincinnati.”
In July 2024, the Bengals pulled all extension offers and stopped negotiations. Earlier this month, the process resumed, “but tensions remain.”
Primary sticking points include the duration of a new deal and the contribution to be made by Hamilton County.
The Bengals believe that nearly $500 million in improvements identified in April 2022 should have already begun.
In September, the county submitted a framework for talks, which omitted key factors like length of extension and dollars. Generally, the money would come from a local sales tax, Ohio, the NFL, and the team.
As the saying goes, deadlines spur action. For now, a pretty important deadline is coming, and the Bengals don’t have any real alternatives that don’t involve packing up and leaving town.
