The Cincinnati Bengals had a productive 2025 NFL offseason headlined by rewarding their own players with lucrative new contracts, even though one — Trey Hendrickson — remains at odds in a public dispute over his contract as training camp nears.
But the Bengals do deserve credit for keeping their offensive core together this year, especially at wide receiver, where Cincinnati inked Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins to massive deals that will keep them connected to quarterback Joe Burrow for several more seasons.
The Bengals’ decision to lock up their pass catchers was ranked as a top-10 offseason move, checking in at No. 9 in a recent NFL ranking.
“When a team has an elite quarterback and said elite quarterback makes it clear he wants to keep his band together, you do your level best to accommodate him,” Bleacher Report’s Gary Davenport wrote. “It wasn’t cheap—Chase is now the NFL’s highest-paid non-quarterback. But bringing back Chase and Higgins gives Joe Burrow one of the league’s most dangerous one-two punches at WR in the league—again. Now if they can just figure out a way to re-up edge-rusher Trey Hendrickson.”
Chase earned every penny of his new contract. He quickly ascended into the top tier of NFL receivers during his rookie season, and may have jumped to the top of that elite tier after a 2024 season that ended with a league-best 127 catches for 1,708 yards and 17 touchdowns.
Simply put, Chase was remarkable.
And Higgins was fantastic in his own right, too. He appeared in just 12 games but still managed 73 catches for 911 yards and 10 scores.
The duo will return as the best 1-2 punch in the NFL in 2025 as the Cincinnati Bengals attempt to finally make a deep playoff run while their key players are in their prime.
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