There appears to be some significant movement on the Ja’Marr Chase contract saga front for the Cincinnati Bengals.
Let a new report from ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler tell it, the team has ramped up its efforts to get an extension done before Week 1 practice really gets going.
“From what I’m hearing, the Bengals have intensified their efforts to try to get this done in recent days. They are hopeful to try and get him back onto the practice field,” Fowler said on ESPN. “Nothing is imminent. People I’ve talked to in the building are somewhat optimistic and hopeful. There’s a feeling in the locker room that they can get him back here. But they’ve got to get this across the finish line.”
This…isn’t all that shocking. While Chase having two years left on his rookie contract complicates matters from a structure standpoint, the big three in front of him on the market — Justin Jefferson, CeeDee Lamb, Brandon Aiyuk — are all done.
Next up is Chase, who just sent a very clear message to the Bengals by reverting to a non-participant in recent practices. That, after Zac Taylor had suggested things were back to normal.
While Chase exercises the very last of his leverage, the Bengals don’t have many reasons not to get something done now to avoid issues. Chase deserves and will likely match or even slightly overcome Jefferson’s number and if that happens, given how fast the market moves, he won’t be in the top spot by this time next year.
This is the first credible report detailing the inner workings of this saga in a while. That it says the Bengals are making the push is good news. There’s a chance things still delay until next offseason, but in the past, the organization has been good at getting deals done with superstars in crunch time right before the season starts.
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