Bengals prez: Chase contract unlikely this season

Ben Baby, ESPN Staff WriterJul 22, 2024, 04:19 PM ET
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CINCINNATI — A contract extension for Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase may not be imminent, team president Mike Brown indicated Monday.

At the team’s annual media luncheon, Brown was asked whether negotiations will continue into the regular season. While the longtime head executive said, “opportunities can arise unexpectedly” and the team is open to agreeing to a deal if it is right for the club, conditions aren’t currently ideal to sign Chase to a contract extension as veterans prepare to report for camp on Tuesday.

“It’s not so likely that this is the good time to negotiate,” Brown said. “The offseason is a better time for that and we’re going to try to keep focused on the football part.

“I’m not going to rule anything out, but I will tell you that the die has probably been cast.”

Chase, a first-round pick in the 2021 draft, has been a Pro Bowl selection in each of his first three NFL seasons and has set franchise records for most receiving yards in a single game and a single season.

Even though the Bengals didn’t make the playoffs last season following quarterback Joe Burrow‘s season-ending wrist injury, Chase still earned a Pro Bowl nod and finished the year with 1,216 receiving yards, the 12th-most in the league.

In what is typically his only media availability of the calendar year, Brown emphasized Chase’s importance to the franchise and the desire to get a deal done.

“He’s a key player next to Joe [Burrow],” Brown said. “He’s our next one. He knows that. We know it. This may take a while. We are going to bend over backwards to get it done. I can’t tell you when.”

Chase did not participate in the team’s voluntary workouts and while he did report for the mandatory minicamp in June and participated in the walk-through portions of the workouts, he did not take reps during team drills and declined to comment.

Previously, Chase has identified Justin Jefferson‘s contract with the Minnesota Vikings as the blueprint for his future deal. Jefferson, his former LSU teammate who is second in total receiving yards over the past four years, signed a record-breaking extension in June. He signed a four-year contract worth $140 million, including $110 million in guaranteed money. Both totals are the most ever given to a non-quarterback in league history.

The Bengals are no strangers to giving key players significant money. In 2023, Burrow signed a five-year deal worth $275 million, which is now tied (with the Jacksonville Jaguars‘ Trevor Lawrence) for the highest annual average salary ($55 million) on any deal ever given to an NFL player. Duke Tobin, the team’s director of player personnel, underscored Chase’s value to the team that is looking to get back to the AFC Championship Game for the third time in four years.

“Ja’Marr Chase is a rare football player,” Tobin said. “If it was just wide receiver, I wouldn’t spend a nickel on it. But it’s Ja’Marr Chase, and so we’ll see what can get done.”