The Cincinnati Bengals are one of the best teams in the NFL given how much young talent they have on the roster. However, it is going to be difficult to retain all of that young talent as their roster is about to get very expensive.
It is a challenge that President Mike Brown acknowledged during the team’s annual luncheon this week. While they would certainly love to keep everyone around, we saw this past offseason that is an impossibility.
“We have some good players that need to be fed,” Brown said. “That’s a challenge. It’s mathematical. You get a bag of corn and you have 10 hogs. Well, you’re going to put that out to them. The bag’s going to be empty. And some of them aren’t going to get it.”
This offseason the Bengals lost their starting safety tandem, Jessie Bates III and Vonn Bell, to free agency. An extension for franchise quarterback Joe Burrow is looming and everyone knows it. However, both sides have been tight-lipped about negotiations and if there have even been any.
“I have bound myself not to talk about Joe’s contract,” Brown said. “I don’t think it’s helpful for the negotiations. The other side has made the same commitment and they have not broken it.”
Burrow isn’t the only player who is in line for a massive contract. Wide receiver Tee Higgins, a second-round pick in 2020, is set to be a free agent in 2024 and will assuredly receive some monster contract offers should he hit the open market.
While he plays the No. 2 role behind Ja’Marr Chase in Cincinnati, Higgins has all of the tools to be a No. 1 receiver for a team. With a big extension potentially coming for Chase next year as well, can the Bengals figure out a way to keep both of their explosive receivers?
Team director of player personnel, Duke Tobin, certainly believes so. “We’re not out looking to replace them with other guys,” Tobin said Monday. “We’d like to keep them around. We’ll see if that’s possible. I can’t predict that, but we’re definitely hopeful that we have long-term relationships with the guys.”
Last but not least, linebacker Logan Wilson is also eligible for an extension this offseason along with Burrow and Higgins. Wilson has turned into an integral part of their defensive game plan since being a third-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft out of Wyoming and should receive a lucrative deal of his own.
That is a lot of financials for the Bengals to sort through, but that is why people in the front office are paid the big bucks. Sacrifices will have to be made and decisions like these are where the great teams separate themselves from the good ones.
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