Bengals praised for overlooked details in Tee Higgins' contract

The Cincinnati Bengals came under some fire for how they handled contract extensions for Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins.

To keep it short, the argument is that the Bengals didn't follow most other NFL teams by permitting the massive extensions to lower the cap hits for both players in 2025. Instead, one of the cap hits actually rose, while the other decreased minimally.

Still, it's not all bad. As Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer pointed out, the creativity in Higgins' deal, especially, is notable:

Tee Higgins’s deal, on the other hand, has $30 million in fully guaranteed money—a $20 million roster bonus he’s already collected and a $10 million roster bonus due next March. As a practical matter, he’s not guaranteed the $13.8 million he’s due this year, but he’ll get that, plus a $100,000 workout bonus and, if he stays healthy, $2 million in per-game roster bonuses, bringing the 2025 total to $35.9 million. But all he’s guaranteed is $10 million beyond that, and that roster bonus is subject to offsets, mitigating the team’s risk.

So while Higgins' deal is technically a four-year contract worth $115 million, the guarantees are manageable and the team protected itself against his consistent injury woes with that $2 million per-game roster bonuses.

That won't win over outsiders who didn't want to see the Bengals keep both guys and it especially won't win over outsiders who don't like the overall terms of the contracts. But the Bengals did protect themselves on the Higgins front, while the star wideout himself sacrificed a bit to remain where he wants to be.

This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: Bengals praised for overlooked details in Tee Higgins' contract