AFC Notes: Ja’Marr Chase, Nick Chubb, Bengals, Browns, Ravens

Bengals

Bengals owner Mike Brown explained why the team failed to get a contract extension done with WR Tee Higgins and why WR Ja’Marr Chase still has yet to receive one.

“We are saddled with the cap,” Brown said, via Pro Football Talk. “The pie is not going to grow. When you reach a point with your quarterback that you have to pay him a big contract, that takes a disproportionate piece out of the pie, which means you have less left to pay the others. Sometimes that impacts whether you can get the others signed. You can’t just pay people willy-nilly.”

Brown said that he wants to keep Higgins with the team.

“We really like Tee Higgins,” Brown added. “We would wish to sign him, but it has to be at a certain level to fit within the cap or it can’t be done.”

Bengals Director of Player Personnel Duke Tobin didn’t want to get into specifics on why the team was unable to extend Higgins.

“I don’t want to say why, it just didn’t come together,” Tobin said of the Higgins extension. “I don’t fault anybody on that. It’s gotta work for us, and it has to work for them, and sometimes that collides with each other, and sometimes it misses. We accept that, and he accepts that.”

Brown said that the team is going to try to re-sign Chase as well while deflecting when asked if QB Joe Burrow‘s extension left enough room in the budget for his next contract.

“We’re going to try hard,” Brown said while responding to a question about whether Burrow’s deal leaves enough room for the team to sign Chase. “If you were listing our guys, one-two, you just did it, and (Chase) knows that,” Brown said. “We know it, but it has to get done. We have both this year and next year where we have rights to Ja’Marr, so maybe it’ll take longer than we wish.”

Tobin said signing a receiver to the type of contract that Chase is likely looking for is irrelevant, as he’s that important to the team.

“I don’t view people as receivers; I view them as individuals,” he said. “And I think there’s a lot of pros to having a Ja’Marr Chase. I don’t call him, ‘Receiver.’ I call him, ‘Ja’Marr Chase.’ And Ja’Marr Chase is a rare football player. So if it was just wide receiver, I wouldn’t spend a nickel on it,” he added. “But it’s Ja’Marr Chase, and so we’ll see what we can get done. We’ve got to kind of marry that up with what makes sense financially to still keep the rest of the team going as best we can.”

• Brown on a potential extension for K Evan McPherson: “We’ve been talking to Evan McPherson, we’re hoping we can get there with him.” (Kelsey Conway)

Browns

With the devastating injury to Browns RB Nick Chubb early in the 2023 season, Zac Jackson of The Athletic evaluated the current state of Cleveland’s RB room and what their options are going into training camp.

• Starting with RB Jerome Ford, Jackson feels the team “believes in Ford’s ability and versatility” and thinks the likely outcome is he will be a part of a committee of some sort.
• Jackson noted RB Nyheim Hines has connections to both OC Ken Dorsey and ST coordinator Bubba Ventrone and is “probably first in a line” for a return man job and third-down option as long as he’s healthy.
• Regarding veteran RB D’Onta Foreman, Jackson sees him taking short-yardage work along with the feature role in certain situations.
• The other three RBs Jackson mentions are Pierre Strong Jr., John Kelly Jr., and UDFA Aidan Robbins. Jackson believes Strong’s special teams contributions will keep him on the roster while the other two are just practice squad candidates.
• The Browns signed K Dustin Hopkins to a three-year, $15.3 million extension with $8.362 million guaranteed including a $3.58 million signing bonus. (Over The Cap)
• Hopkins can earn up to $765k each year in per-game roster bonuses and his 2024 cap number was decreased by $850k as a result of the extension. (Over The Cap)

Ravens

Ravens HC John Harbaugh expects WR Rashod Bateman to be one of the top receivers in the league.

“Rashod’s been working to make plays — To see him come out and make those catches, those are great catches,” Harbaugh said, via PFT. “Traffic catches, one catch he plucked off the ground there. I was excited, everybody was fired up about it. That’s what we expect from Rashod Bateman. He’s expected to be a top receiver in the league for us. That’s what we’re planning on.”

• According to Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic, Bateman mentioned his foot is “not an issue anymore” and he’s back to 100 percent health.