The Cincinnati Bengals have locked up both their top-flight wide receivers for the long-haul. According to Fox Sports’ insider Jordan Schultz, WRs Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins have signed massive contract extensions with the team, keeping them as pillars of the Bengals’ offense for years to come.
Per Schultz, Chase is the officially the highest-paid non-quarterback in the league, inking a four-year, $161 million extension that averages out just above the recent extension Cleveland Browns DE Myles Garrett signed at $40 million average yearly value.
Higgins’ deal lands him four years an $115 million, $28.75 million per. It’s slightly below the $30 million per year extension the Pittsburgh Steelers gave WR DK Metcalf as part of his trade from Seattle, but for Schultz, incentives can bring the total value up to Metcalf’s mark.
Chase is coming off a 2024 where he led the league in receptions (127), receiving yards (1,708), receiving touchdowns (17), and receiving yards per game (100.5).
Chase was entering the final year of his rookie deal in 2025, and he held a strong bargaining chip with that 2024 performance. He expressed his desire for a new deal at the Pro Bowl, saying he wanted a “fair” deal. The deal makes him by far the highest paid receiver in the league.
He was certainly deserving of a big payday after his first four seasons in the NFL. He caught 395 passes for 5,425 yards and 46 touchdowns with an average of 13.7 yards per catch in his first four seasons. And that’s with missing five games in 2022 and one in 2023. In six games versus the Pittsburgh Steelers, Chase had 37 catches for 496 yards and five touchdowns. Historically, big deals were hard to come by from the Bengals, but there is no doubt Chase lived up to being the fifth-overall pick in 2021.
Unfortunately for Steelers fans, one of the best wide receivers in the league will be staying in Cincinnati for the foreseeable future. And with QB Joe Burrow under center, the Bengals will still be an offensive problem as long as they are healthy.
Higgins isn’t going anywhere either. His extensions comes after the Bengals franchise-tagged him to open March. Despite missing five games, he still finished 2024 with 73 catches for 911 yards and 10 touchdowns.
The Steelers knew they would face Higgins in 2025, barring a holdout, but he’s now locked in for four years. And while he hasn’t destroyed the Steelers, he still had 41 catches for 697 yards and four touchdowns in eight career matchups. That includes nine catches for 122 yards and one touchdown across two games in 2024.
While Higgins might be Robin to Bengals WR Ja’Marr Chase’s Batman, he is still one of the top receivers in the league. In the five years since the Bengals drafted Chase in the second round, he has 330 catches for 4,595 yards and 34 touchdowns, an average of 13.9 yards per catch. It makes all the sense in the world that the Bengals would want to keep Higgins around with QB Joe Burrow under center.
Higgins may not have played a full season since his rookie year, but that hasn’t stopped him from being a consistent offensive threat for the Bengals. And now he can put any contract issues aside for the next four years after being tagged two offseasons in a row by the Bengals. That means the Steelers’ secondary will continue to have their hands full every time the Bengals and Steelers meet. And the normally penny-pinching Bengals are spending big.
