Everything is for sale. The Browns proved that this past weekend by buying Myles Garrett’s will to win football games. He said he wanted out. He said nothing would change his mind. He threatened to sit out.
Then, he became the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history. Funny how that works.
What does this have to do with the Cincinnati Bengals? Well, it shouldn’t have anything to do with them—but unfortunately, they’ve allowed other teams’ business to dictate their own ability to retain key players.
Ja’Marr Chase should have been extended after his third season before the 2025 season raised his price. Instead, he played through the year on his rookie deal and won the rare Triple Crown, skyrocketing his value. Now, Garrett’s contract just set the market even higher for him.
Then there’s Tee Higgins. Both sides have expressed a desire to get a deal done, but the Bengals front office dragged its feet. In the meantime, a division rival just traded for DK Metcalf and paid him $33 million a year. Higgins’ price tag just went up.
And then there’s Trey Hendrickson. He wants to stay in Cincinnati—if the Bengals pay him. He led the league in sacks in 2024 and has been one of the best free-agent signings in franchise history. Yes, he’s on the wrong side of 30, but he’s showing no signs of slowing down. Yet the Raiders just extended Maxx Crosby for $106 million over three years, with $91 million fully guaranteed.
Hendrickson will want more. The Bengals will refuse to pay. Nobody wins.
The Bengals put their own players in a situation where they have to bet on themselves while the franchise bets against them.
Had the Bengals taken the initiative and extended their stars early, I’d be writing about something else right now. But this is the reality. The Bengals, despite all their aesthetic changes, still negotiate with their own players in bad faith.
Now, they’ll have to give Chase even more money than they originally planned, they’ll likely have to pay Higgins more than he ever asked for, and they’ll probably lose Hendrickson entirely.
Had they locked in both Higgins and Chase when they could, both would likely be under contract right now, saving the team roughly $10 million. That’s money that could go toward a starting guard, a pass rusher, or a cornerback. Instead, they played hardball, and now they’ll pay for it—one way or another.
The Urgency of Now
This is a massive week for the Bengals. They don’t have the draft capital to fill all their roster holes—on both sides of the ball. They need to replace both guards. They need to replace Hendrickson and Sam Hubbard. They have little depth at every level of the defense.
They not only need to nail the draft, but they need to spend like it’s going out of style. They have the cap space to do whatever they need, but will they?
They didn’t in 2024, and it cost them dearly.
They wasted an MVP-worthy season from Joe Burrow. They wasted Chase’s Triple Crown year. They wasted Hendrickson leading the league in sacks—all for a 9-8 record. Less talented teams played in the postseason while the Bengals watched from home.
The Bengals’ 2024 season should go down as one of the most epic front-office collapses in NFL history. If they don’t go all out right now, 2025 could be another wasted year.
The term “strike while the iron is hot” exists for a reason. With Burrow at the peak of his powers, Chase in his prime, and (hopefully) Higgins back, the iron has never been hotter.
This isn’t the time for bargain-bin free agency, reclamation projects, or aging veterans looking for a second or third shot.
They need a 2021-level free-agency haul (Hendrickson, Mike Hilton, Chidobe Awuzie, Larry Ogunjobi) to avoid being desperate in the draft. If they’re serious about winning a Super Bowl—if they want to prove it to us and their own players—they need to go all in.
Because at the end of the day, the salary cap isn’t even real.
Relevant Song Lyrics:
Standing outside the fire
Standing outside the fire
Life is not tried it, is merely survived
If you’re standing outside the fire.