The Bengals drafted receiver Ja’Marr Chase and kicker Evan McPherson in the same year. Both are eligible for new contracts. One has gotten one, and one has not.
The team has officially announced that it has extended the contract of McPherson.
“Evan has shown to be a consistent weapon for our team,” coach Zac Taylor said in a team-issued release. “He has come through in enormous moments for us, and he’s a big part of what we’re going to do going forward. He represents himself and the team the right way, and I’m very excited for Evan and his family that we were able to get this done before the season.”
The same quote could be applied to Chase, with exclamation points instead of periods. But Chase’s situation lingers.
The Bengals have been sending mixed signals publicly about whether Chase will get a new deal. At one point, owner Mike Brown said the team would bend over backwards to sign Chase to a new contract. At the same time, Brown said it’s not likely to happen this year.
Chase, as we recently explained, would have held out but for the fact that $3.8 million of his $4.962 million compensation came in the form of a roster bonus that he would have lost, if he hadn’t been in camp by Day 3.
Whether the Bengals and Chase work something out before the season starts remains to be seen. If the team waits, it will only be more expensive. But the team also will have gotten a fourth year from one of the best receivers in the league for peanuts in comparison to the game’s other short-list, best-of-the-best receivers.
The difference between Chase and McPherson comes from the fifth-year option available to first-round draft picks. This often causes teams that should otherwise reward a player for three great seasons to squat on his rights for a fourth, before getting serious about doing a new deal. (Here’s an idea — kill the fifth-year option as one of the terms for expanding to 18 games.)
Last year, quarterback Joe Burrow got his deal on the Thursday before the start of the regular season. The Bengals probably would need to accelerate that by a week, if they want Chase to be on the field for the various practices in advance of the regular-season opener against the Patriots.
