The 2024 season was a disappointing one for the Cincinnati Bengals. They came out of the gates slow, falling behind in the AFC playoff picture before a late-season surge saw them fall just short of the postseason.
Now, the bill is coming due for the Bengals. Star receiver Tee Higgins is set to hit free agency, Ja’Marr Chase is due for a record-setting extension at the wide receiver position, and 2024 NFL sack king and possible Defensive Player of the Year Trey Hendrickson wants a new contract.
That’s going to get pretty pricey, especially for a cost-efficient franchise like the Bengals under owner Mike Brown.
Star quarterback Joe Burrow has a solution, though.
Appearing on FS1’s Breakfast Ball Thursday morning, Burrow stated that he’s willing to do his part to ensure that all three players remain in Cincinnati moving forward.
“Of course,” Burrow said when asked by Craig Carton if he’d be willing to restructure his deal to free up cap space, according to video via FS1.
Burrow’s comment on a potential restructure came after he stated he has confidence in the franchise doing what it takes to keep the band together.
“We have the cap space to get it done. Trey, Tee, Ja’Marr, and Mike G[esicki] – we all want to play together,” Burrow said, adding tight end Mike Gesicki to the mix.
Joe Burrow has been adamant that the Bengals have the cap space. According to OverTheCap.com, the Bengals have $46,567,407 in cap space with $43,156,846 in effective cap space.
Therefore, they have cap space, but that’s not enough to keep Higgins and Chase together and make a guy like Hendrickson happy, not unless they do some salary cap gymnastics.
Some of that could occur with Burrow’s contract. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft signed a five-year, $275 million deal with the Bengals in September 2023. The deal included over $219 million guaranteed.
While a Burrow restructure would help create more cap space and wiggle room for the Bengals, how Cincinnati structures contracts and how it does business — which is very similar to Pittsburgh and avoiding guarantees past the first year — could make things tricky when it comes to deals for Higgins, Chase and Hendrickson.
To his credit, Joe Burrow is applying the full-court press to make sure the offensive trio and the game-changing piece defensively stick together long-term as the Bengals try and compete for a Super Bowl. We’ll see if Burrow backs up what he says and restructures his deal before free agency in an effort to help facilitate deals getting done.
