The Bengals took care of some roster housekeeping as they started their offseason program on Monday.
The team announced that they re-signed linebacker Joe Bachie and long snapper Cal Adomitis. Both players were tendered as exclusive rights free agents, so they weren’t able to negotiate with any teams other than the Bengals.
Bachie was claimed off of waivers from the Eagles in 2021 and he’s been a regular on special teams over the last three seasons. He has 43 tackles and a pass defensed in 35 games for Cincinnati.
Adomitis has played in 35 games over the last two seasons. He has three regular season tackles and one in the postseason.
The Chiefs made it to the Super Bowl for the fourth time in the last five seasons earlier this year, but their trip to the championship was a bit different than in previous years.
After facing the Bengals in two straight AFC title games, the Chiefs didn’t have to face Cincinnati at all this time around. Quarterback Joe Burrow’s wrist injury kept the Bengals from contending for a playoff spot and that meant the Chiefs didn’t have to deal with one of their thorniest foes en route to Las Vegas.
The Bengals kept the Chiefs from advancing to Super Bowl LVI and Burrow is 3-1 against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs over the course of his career. Burrow touched on that record during an appearance on the New Heights podcast with Jason and Travis Kelce when he said that the Bengals are constructed with the task of beating the Chiefs in mind.
“I don’t know. I think we both work really hard. They have great players, we have great players,” Burrow said, via the team’s website. “I think we match up pretty well with them. I think we’re built to beat them. I always appreciate the legendary battles we have. Guys are out there always making plays. Patrick is always out there making plays. Both teams have big-time defensive lines. It’s a great matchup.”
The Chiefs are set to make a run at becoming the first team to win three straight Super Bowls during the 2024 season and they’ll have a home date with the Bengals on the schedule as part of that effort. If Burrow can beat them for the fourth time, it will improve the chances of another postseason meeting with the only AFC team that has had Kansas City’s number in recent years.
After the Bengals placed the franchise tag on receiver Tee Higgins, he requested a trade. A month later, nothing has changed.
Higgins, though, said Sunday that he expects to play for the Bengals this season.
“I do anticipate it,” Higgins said, via video from Charlie Clifford of WXIX-TV. “I’ve grown a love for Cincinnati that I didn’t think I would. [I’m] looking forward to it.”
Higgins and the Bengals have talked for two years without coming to terms on a long-term deal. They have until 4 p.m. ET on July 15 to negotiate a new deal.
The one-year, fully guaranteed franchise tag will pay Higgins $21.8 million.
Safety Jessie Bates played 2022 on the franchise tag before leaving for a four-year, $64.02 million deal with the Falcons in the 2023 offseason. He earned Pro Bowl honors for the first time last season.
Eight teams used the franchise tag this offseason, and Higgins and Bucs safety Antoine Winfield Jr. are the only players yet to sign a contract extension.
Higgins, 25, played 12 games last season, missing four games with a fractured rib and then Week 18 with a hamstring issue. He caught 42 passes for 656 yards and five touchdowns, all career lows.
Higgins had 1,000-yard seasons in 2021 and 2022 and has 257 catches for 3,684 yards and 24 touchdowns in his four seasons in Cincinnati, which made him a second-round pick in 2020.
Agents love to make contracts seem to be worth more than they are. Those who don’t warp and twist reality are the rare exception.
The end result is that the numbers commonly circulated when it comes to the value of specific deals are much higher than they actually are.
While it’s a dynamic that applies to every position, the receiver position currently has the most glaring examples of contracts which aren’t what they seem to be — especially at the supposed top of the market.
Let’s start with Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill. $30 million per year! False.
Beyond the new money/old money fiction that is commonly used to pump up contract value, Hill’s contract has a phony-baloney final year that pays out $45 million. It deftly pushes the new-money average to $30 million.
The truth is that Hill’s extension has a new-money average of $25 million per year. The more accurate truth is that, when he was traded to Miami, he signed a four-year deal worth $23.8 million per year.
And $23.8 million is a far cry from $30 million.
Next on the highest-paid receiver list is Davante Adams of the Raiders. $28 million per year! Also false.
His contract has a bogus back end of $72.5 million over two years, which deliberately drives up the average. His contract is, in reality, a three-year, $67.5 million deal. The real average is $22.5 million per year.
Then there’s Rams receiver Cooper Kupp. His post-Super Bowl MVP contract paid him $26.7 million per year! Annnnnd false.
It’s a five-year deal worth $21.97 million per year.
The list goes on and on. Eagles receiver A.J. Brown, $25 million per year? Nope. $20.8 million.
Seahawks receiver DK Metcalf, $24 million annually? More like $19 million.
49ers receiver Deebo Samuel, $23.85 million per year? Make that $18.9 million.
Commanders receiver Terry McLaurin, $23.2 million? Try $17.78 million.
The three newest deals, done in the last month, fall far closer to truthful and accurate on their face.
Colts receiver Michael Pittman traded in the franchise tag for a three-year, $70 million deal. That’s a real $23.3 million average and a return to the open market by 2027.
Titans receiver Calvin Ridley signed for $92 million over four years. It’s a solid $23 million per year. (The Titans can get out after two years, but Ridley will make $24 million per year through 2025.)
The best deal of them all might be the revised contract signed by Texans receiver Stefon Diggs. He’ll get $22.5 million this year plus a ticket to the open market in 2025. None of the other receivers on this list are due to become free agents next year, although some of them (specifically Adams) could be cut before the new league year in March.
Keep these numbers in mind as the next wave of receivers jockey for their next contracts, from Justin Jefferson of the Vikings to Ja’Marr Chase of the Bengals to Tee Higgins of the Bengals (who is subject to the franchise tag) to Brandon Aiyuk of the 49ers and beyond.
The simple reality is that no receiver is currently making even $24 million per year when the contract is valued from the moment the contract is signed. Will some receivers soon be making more than that? Jefferson and Chase absolutely should.
Joe Burrow continues to taunt the NFL regarding its stance on taunting.
During the AFC Championship, when Ravens receiver Zay Flowers blatantly taunted a Chiefs defender following a key catch, Burrow posted on X: “Let the guys taunt.”
Appearing on the podcast co-hosted by a player whose team benefited from that call, Burrow elaborated on his stance.
“Yea, I’m pro taunting,” Burrow said on the New Heights podcast with Travis and Jason Kelce, via Olivia Ray of WLWT. “We’re all grown adults that work really hard at what we do. And sometimes we’d like to show it. I’m not gonna get my feelings hurt if somebody sacks me and taunts me, like, you made a play. I get it. Like good for you.”
He’s not wrong, but his mindset is far from universal. Plenty of players get pissed when another player taunts them after a big play. The league’s goal in restricting taunting is to ensure that there won’t be a pissed-off opponent who’s lurking later in the game, waiting for the chance to deliver a clean, legal, and wholly unnecessary hit that will potentially get a guy injured. Likewise, the league doesn’t want taunting to be met with more taunting and to eventually spark a helmet-swinging fight.
The problem is that the officials have stopped calling it the way they did when it was a “point of emphasis” in 2021. Before the Flowers flag, which came after blatant taunting, guys were getting away with less severe taunts that nevertheless would have drawn a flag when the officials were constantly looking for it.
The 2021 point of emphasis on taunting followed a 2014 point of emphasis on taunting. Which further proves that the term “point of emphasis” is a fancy way of saying to the officials, “We’ve noticed you’re not doing your job the way we’d like you to do your job. Please do your job better.”
Regardless of Burrow’s opinion, the league doesn’t share it because most players don’t share his disposition. If every player on the wrong end of taunting reacted by saying, “Good for you, Jack,” there would be no rule against it.
