AUGUST 29: Chase was again present for practice without participating on Thursday, as noted by Baby. Taylor declined to offer a firm timeline on when he expects Chase to return to team drills, meaning plenty of uncertainty remains over a situation which appeared to to be nearing at least a short-term resolution earlier this week.
AUGUST 28: The Ja’Marr Chase saga took an interesting turn today. After returning to practice earlier this week, the Bengals wideout didn’t participate in today’s session. Per Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic, Chase was spotted at the team facility wearing only street clothes. ESPN’s Ben Baby confirms that Chase did not practice with the team today. This development comes 24 hours after coach Zac Taylor said he expected his star wideout to practice fully on Wednesday and Thursday.
After staging a training camp hold-in in pursuit of a new contract, Chase seemed to abandon his stance this week. The receiver participated in lighter practices to begin the week, and Taylor even told reporters yesterday that his star player was expected to suit up for Week 1.
Things took a turn today. With the Bengals preparing for “a more traditional game week practice” (per Baby), Chase was on the sideline. Taylor later walked back his previous comments about Chase’s practice availability, noting that he likely spoke “too quickly” while declaring the receiver day-to-day (although the coach also acknowledged that Chase is completely healthy).
“I think every day is a new day. We’ll keep working through it,” Taylor said (via NFL.com’s Nick Shook). “I am not going to make any predictions to what tomorrow brings. At the end of the day, Ja’Marr is a great dude that means a lot to this team, and we’ll just continue to take it day to day.”
While the Bengals have continually expressed interest in extending Chase, the front office is in no rush to hand him a lucrative new contract with two years remaining on the current deal. Chase doesn’t have a whole lot of leverage besides protecting his health and staying off the practice field, but one of the sides will eventually have to blink if the receiver is going to play in Week 1.
I just don’t get the Bengals. They can’t pay Higgins because they have to pay Chase but then don’t want to pay Chase.
I mean Chase is a year early to want this extension though (and he started talking about his payday as a rookie for crying out loud). You still got 2 years on it, it’s different if you’re going into your 5th year option but to demand to be paid like a top receiver so early is definitely a bit much for the front office to just suddenly decide “yea let’s break the bank a year early”. These guys plan a lot with the cap and when to expect to have to extend guys. I’m not saying he shouldn’t get paid, and even this year is fine, but there should be a little more patience on Chase’s end before holding out like this.
I completely agree. As a Bengals fan it’s kinda making me mad how Chase is acting when the Bengals have essentially 3 years of team control still. This year, then the 5th year option which is fully guaranteed and then even after that they can tag him if they want. The Bengals aren’t the kind of franchise that will bend easily to a player sitting out or making demands (I.e. Trey Hendrickson) and as a Cincy fan I have no problem with it. Joe said nothing and done everything right and he did get paid early.
Chase saw Amon-ra, Devonta, and Waddle get paid after their 3rd year, and now he wants in on the action too – how can you blame him?
And I’m completely fine with him wanting to get paid, but those 3 also didn’t do a hold out.
Can’t blame him for wanting to get paid at all. But I can blame him for how he’s acted about it. None of those other guys held out.
If he doesn’t like the contract he voluntarily signed, or the way the rules are in the NFL that he voluntarily joined…. Let him change careers then. He can always choose another profession. His choice.
The cap is not real. You can do multiple things to manipulate it. If it was such a big thing then how do the chiefs, 49ers and other top teams keep adding guys. The Bucs were suppose to be in cap hell when Brady left but they seem to be doing just fine.
The Bucs were in cap hell and that’s why they couldn’t spend any money for 2 years. They also have a relatively cheap QB
The 49ers have a $750k a year QB. why do you think they don’t want to pay Aiyuk, they can’t afford him when they see their cap with Purdy making actual money that most teams pay their QB. You’ll also see them make drastic changes once they have Purdy at market value.
The chiefs have like 3 expensive players and the rest are on rookie contracts, and it’s cuz they pay their QB so much. The cap is very real
Did you not just see what the Browns did they just created 30 million in cap space by restructuring Watsons deal. Teams do this all the time. The cap is not real they turn years into fake years
Claiming the cap is not real is the dumbest thing I have read on this site, congrats!
lol it still will catch up with them eventually. It can be manipulated but it’s 100% real. Tell the Bills who are eating like $19m this year of just dead cap space that the cap isn’t real lol.
The Bill’s are over the cap by 166 thousand you dont think if they needed cap space they would create it. You just keep pushing the years. By the time you say its gonna catch up with them the cap will go up significantly making your statement false.
No one here agrees with you guy. It’s not that simple at all. Eventually everyone has to deal with it no matter how much they keep kicking the can down the road. If you just keep extending and signing and not paying attention to it, you have plenty of years where large chunks of your cap are spent on former players. It’s as simple as that. Maybe go back and take some math classes or something?
49ers just restructured Deebo creating 16.4 million in cap space but keep telling yourself the cap is real
Tell me how the cap is fake if teams need to deal with dead money hits. Saying it’s fake is like….actually….are you 10 years old? Maybe I’m arguing with some little kid cuz that’s what this feels like. The Eagles had a year they couldn’t sign lots of players cuz wentz gave them a huge dead cap hit. The bills are dealing with it this current season. The Rams couldn’t sign anyone last offseason cuz of their dead cap hits. You don’t think those teams wouldn’t have loved to sign players with all that dead money? Is it able to be manipulated? Yes. Is it flexible? Yes. But it’s still real! And the longer you kick the can down the road, the worse it gets and EVENTUALLY you end up with a year where you have tons of money spent on no one. And that, little boy, is called a “dead cap hit” next time you’re watching ESPN. go eat some wheaties little guy
There’s one thing you’re leaving out the cap keeps going up. This is why teams are doing this more often. The cap is 260 million right now in 2 years it’s expected to be 330 million. That’s a huge increase which makes dead cap hit less relevant. Do some research please.
It doesn’t matter if it’s LESS relevant you’re saying it’s not real at all. I can assure you if the bills right now didn’t have such a big dead cap hit from diggs, they would have been more active in free agency. You’re saying it doesn’t exist at all. Dead cap is real. And trust me these teams would rather be spending that on a player on their roster, not someone who is already gone. $16m could be like 3 different additional players. It’s simple math dude. You learn addition and subtraction in what grade?
Can we at least fulfill the first 4 years of a rookie contract before we start the drama, what next, rookies gonna start holding out for a new contract already…..ridiculous
If you think about it though, with the way the market has been booming for wr’s maybe consider paying him now. The wr market will probably just continue to go up next year. Might be cheaper to extend him now rather after the season and save some money, especially if he has a great season.
I think they drafted a WR knowing when Purdy gets paid they’ll need to let Aiyuk or Deebo go. They have too much money in their defensive side of the ball. Big changes will need to be made once Purdy gets paid and they know it. Frankly they should just trade him now and get what they can for him but this year is going to still be a superbowl window and they’re trying to find a way to keep him for this year and not have to pay him. It honestly makes sense. Everyone forgets how cheap Purdy is. Even some of the worst QBs that aren’t on rookie deals make at least $35m. Purdy makes less than $1m (and he’ll probably be making $60m once he extends). That’s like 4 high paid players that get replaced cuz of that contract alone.
So much for not wanting to sign Aiyuk and they still have 39 million in cap space. They have top guys at almost every position being paid good/big money. Only the QB has not been paid yet. Explain how they have 39 million in cap space. It’s not because there not paying there QB. It’s called manipulating the cap making it not as real as people think
He’s a punk, pure and simple. It’s all about him not the team. Doesn’t matter how good you are if you’re sitting on the sidelines. Instead of waiting his turn and then getting paid he wants to push the issue. Got news for you buddy Mike Brown will wait you out, he’s not known for losing to many staring contests. He’s old school where you act like a gentleman and have some decorum. And while he’s sitting someone else is showing what they can do, and the offense is being revamped to not include him because they aren’t sure if he’s going to play or sit on the sidelines and cry.
All these player holdouts and teams using future contracts as an excuse kinda makes my inner agent of chaos want Purdy to holdout for a new contract lol