NFL analysts discussed the Cincinnati Bengals‘ contract extensions of receivers Tee Higgins and Ja’Marr Chase during ESPN’s “Get Up” Monday morning, praising the team’s front office for spending the money needed to keep the talented trio of Higgins, Chase and quarterback Joe Burrow intact while also questioning whether the Bengals’ defense will be good enough to help the team contend for a championship.
“My first reaction was secondaries all across the league got no sleep and are terrified, and that’s including the Cincinnati Bengals’ secondary,” Jason McCourty said. “Because they realize there is no help on the way. All the money just went to Tee Higgins and to Ja’Marr Chase. … Listen, the Cincinnati Bengals, they paid their star players. You have to love and respect that. At the same time, you’re going to have question marks with them on the defensive side of the ball. How do you get enough help? They scored a ton of points last year. And it wasn’t enough for them to make the playoffs. So now that you’ve got these guys, how do you figure out a way to get this defense playing well. They’ve drafted a ton of guys over the last few years. Since they drafted Joe Burrow, nine of the 13 top 100 picks that they’ve had in the draft have gone to the defensive side of the ball, and it hasn’t worked out. So they have to continue to try to grow and develop these guys and bring them along using the draft to try to keep up with the amount of points that Joe Burrow and company are gonna (score).”
Domonique Foxworth: No more ‘making fun of the Bengals for being cheap and broke’
“Whenever you have a quarterback like that that has the ability to get as hot as he does and those receivers, you have a chance to go on a run,” Domonique Foxworth said. “And if you’re going to take a chance and roll the dice on either side of the ball, it’s definitely the defensive side of the ball. That side is a little less sticky. You can get a little lucky with defense from time to time. Bad defenses sometimes have a good run, and good defenses have kind of poor seasons. But I mean the big takeaway from this is I lose the joke. Like, I love making fun of the Bengals for being cheap and broke. They’re no longer cheap and broke. It’s no more fun making fun of the Bengals because they’re spending money, especially if they get the (Trey) Hendrickson deal done. This is a team that’s moved into the modern era of football and trying to spend to win.”
Mike Greenberg says he owes the Bengals an apology: ‘I was wrong’
“Get Up” host Mike Greenberg acknowledged that he didn’t expect the Bengals to pay what they did to extend Higgins and Chase for four more years.
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“When you have as much experience being wrong in your predictions as I do, you get good at explaining them,” Greenberg said. “I was wrong. I owe them an apology. I said on the show on Friday, that this was starting to feel like the same old Bengals. They’re not gonna get the deals done (with Chase and Higgins). They let Hendrickson seek a trade, and then there seems to be all this scuttle that they’re asking too much. And I thought that this was going to be very much like what we have come to expect from the Bengals for a long time. I was wrong. They got the deals done here. We’ll see what happens with Hendrickson. I don’t know if this makes them a championship contender or not. But it was definitely the right thing to do.”
From the Bengals Monday morning via Twitter/X:
