The Kansas City Chiefs have made five Super Bowl appearances in seven years largely due to their salary cap gymnastics. Team-friendly deals by quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce have allowed Chiefs general manager Brett Veach to jump through hurdles in order to retain talent.
Elsewhere, the Cincinnati Bengals have watched their talent slowly disintegrate. The luxury of having a trio of star offensive players on rookie contracts allowed Cincinnati to make a Super Bowl appearance in 2021, but the bill has since come due. If the Bengals want to remain competitive in the same conference as Kansas City, they’ll have to find a way to keep their talent together.
The Bengals managed to sign quarterback Joe Burrow to a long-term deal, but the departures of key defensive players — such as defensive tackle D.J. Reader, cornerback Chidobe Awuzie and safety Jessie Bates III — contributed to Cincinnati’s poor defensive performance in 2024. Now, the Bengals could lose even more talent.
Joe Burrow may finally get Mike Brown to open up his wallet
Along with defensive end Trey Hendrickson, wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins are poised to command top-tier deals this offseason. Cincinnati is hoping to sign all three players to long-term deals this offseason, according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.
Whether they can pull it off — or will genuinely try to do so — is an entirely different matter. Bengals owner Mike Brown hasn’t been known to invest heavily into building a winning roster, but perhaps having one of the league’s best quarterbacks on his team has changed his perspective.
Last offseason, Brown pointed to the salary cap to explain why the team was unable to agree to a long-term deal with Higgins, who ultimately played the 2024 season on a franchise tag for $21.8 million.
“The pie is not going to grow,” Brown said, h/t ProFootballTalk. “It's only going to be a certain size, but when you reach a point with your quarterback that you have to pay him a big contract, that takes a disproportionate piece out of the pie. Which means you have less left to pay the others. Sometimes that impacts whether you can get the others signed. You can't just pay people willy nilly.”
To some extent, Brown makes a valid argument. Burrow and Chase are already accounting for nearly 25 percent of the team’s salary cap space in 2025, and investing more money into the second wideout could prove to be detrimental to the team.
Although the pie may not grow, it can certainly be stuffed. Cincinnati’s largest salary cap hits can be decreased and pushed into the future with new deals. For example, Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson became the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history last offseason, but his 2025 cap hit of $15.1 million is less than Chase’s current cap hit of $21.8 million.
Signing Chase, Hendrickson and Higgins still won’t be easy, but it’s not impossible. Chase will likely top Jefferson’s historic four-year, $140 million contract after leading the league in receptions (127), receiving yards (1,708) and touchdowns (17) in 2024. Hendrickson, who led the league in sacks (17.5), is projected to earn an average annual salary of approximately $30 million by Spotrac. The Bengals are expected to franchise tag Higgins for $26.1 million if they cannot agree to a long-term extension.
Cincinnati is projected to have roughly $49.4 million in salary cap space, but they could increase that figure if needed. Burrow’s base salary can be converted to a bonus to save $19.2 million in cap space, and new deals for Chase and Hendrickson that include void years could lower their current cap hits.