The Bengals are in a precarious spot. Though they ripped off five straight wins to end the season—vaulting Joe Burrow to fourth in MVP voting—they still missed the playoffs.
Now several key pieces from their 9–8 team can be free agents, and several more are nearing the end of their deals. Receiver Tee Higgins and tight end Mike Gesicki can be free agents next month.
Burrow has been on a very public campaign pushing Bengals ownership to bring them back to Cincinnati.
Last week, Cincy’s franchise QB told FS1’s Breakfast Ball: “Keeping everybody we had last year is obviously ideal.” He later added: “We have the cap space to get it done. I want to make it happen. Everybody involved—Trey [Hendrickson], Tee [Higgins], Ja’Marr [Chase], Mike [Gesicki]—we all want to stay together.” When asked if he would restructure his deal to make that possible, he replied: “Of course.”
That answer wasn’t a one-off. In an interview Tuesday on the Pardon My Take podcast, Burrow demonstrated he’s been thinking of how it might look if he did restructure his six-year, $275 million deal he signed in 2023. He indicated there are a few ways it could work: converting a portion to a signing bonus, moving some toward the end of the contract, or even just earning less money.
Whatever path gets taken, Burrow is putting the onus on management to make deals happen. “The Eagles are paying everybody,” he said on PMT of the Super Bowl champions. “That seems like the way. Whatever they’re doing.”
“You could convert some of the money to a signing bonus, which will lower the cap hit,” Burrow said. “You can push some of the money to the back end of the contract. That lowers the cap hit. … And then when you get to the back end of the contract, you can restructure it and convert it to a signing bonus.”
Indeed, Eagles led the league in cash spending on offense, fitting several star deals comfortably under the cap by converting some pay to signing bonuses. The Bengals historically have not pursued contracts that way, which is more expensive in the short term; they’ve been a roughly league-average cash spender since Burrow joined the team.
The Bengals are set to have over $49 million in cap space, 11th most in the league.
Higgins, who ended the year with a career-high 10 touchdowns, is coming off a one-year deal worth $21.8 million but is set to become an unrestricted free agent, as is Gesicki.
Their window is also closing for Hendrickson and Chase, who both have one year left on their deals. The former led the league in sacks and has one year left on his deal, and the latter led the NFL in receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns.
Like Burrow, Higgins wants to keep the band together. “Obviously, we want to build something here in Cincy,” he told Fox’s Cincinnati affiliate on Monday. “But you know, it’s not in my hands right now. So I gotta do what I need to do, and if that’s go to another team, that’s what happens.”
