The Cincinnati Bengals have allocated approximately 40% of their cap space to Joe Burrow, Tee Higgins, and Ja’Marr Chase. They’re excellent offensive weapons to have, but it raises the question of how the team will address their defense and pay other key players like Trey Hendrickson. After all, defense was the weakest part of their team in 2024.
Advertisement
Hendrickson just put up his second 17.5 sack season in a row for the team. He’s been a Pro Bowler for four straight seasons and made the All-Pro team last year. And while he’s still under contract for next season, he’s being severely underpaid. He is set to make just $16 million next year, despite having a market value of $31.5 million. He should be one of the highest-paid edge rushers in the NFL, and even Burrow has pushed for the Bengals to make it happen.
This has got Detroit Lions WR Amon-Ra St. Brown questioning how the team will pull itself back from the trenches. He seemed quite baffled while talking about the situation on the St. Brown Podcast that he does with his brother, Equanimeous.
“They got Trey Hendrickson that they got to sign. He’s a big part of their defense,” he pointed out.
“You gotta pay him too,” Equanimeous chimed in.
“Can you pay everybody though?” a confused St. Brown added.
For the 2025 NFL season, the salary cap was raised to $279 million. That means a team can’t go over that number when handing out contracts. Well, the Bengals are already paying $94 million of that cap space to just three players. It’s both a risky and smart decision. On one hand, they needed to keep this trio together. On the other hand, their defense may continue to suffer because of it.
A contract for Hendrickson would surely mean the Bengals salary cap total would rise to 50% tied up between four players. But it just goes to show how much talent is on their roster.
The St. Brown brothers then went on a tangent about how the 2019 LSU team that Burrow was on might be the highest-paid college group ever. “Is that the best college team ever?” Equanimeous curiously asked his brother.
“That’s the highest-paid college team ever,” Amon-Ra responded.
Between Burrow, Chase, Justin Jefferson, and Derek Stingley, they’ve all now signed contracts worth over $100 million.
Were the Bengals Contracts Deserved?
Amon-Ra and his brother aren’t salty whatsoever about the contracts that the Bengals wideouts received. Being wide receivers, they were happy for both of them and talked about how it’s always great when there’s a new highest-paid receiver. It effectively raises the market for a player like Amon-Ra.
“They’re both some of the best wideouts in the game. So, they deserve it,” he stated. “Ja’Marr came off a triple-crown year, which is one of the most insane years you can have as a receiver. Yeah, I’m happy for them.”
“We’re receivers, so you love to see receivers get paid. They just keep upping the market for the next guys… It’s going to keep going up, so maybe around your next contract, it will be high,” Equanimeous told his brother.
With that being said, Cincinnati is arguably going all-in on a strategy that didn’t work last year. They better hope they hit massively on some defensive gems in the draft. It will decide their Super Bowl hopes next season.
But at the end of the day, you want to keep your quarterback happy. And Burrow was getting fed up with the Bengals’ unwillingness to pay his receivers. Sometimes, a team has to make an uncomfortable decision to keep morale high. And that’s exactly what they did here. Maybe they will struggle to make the playoffs, or maybe, after a tough season, they’ll go all the way.
