Sources: Chase not planning in-season deal talks

Ja’Marr Chase has no plans to negotiate a long-term deal this season with the Cincinnati Bengals, league sources told ESPN.

Talks between Chase and the Bengals are off for now, and probably for the rest of the season, unless the team does something to change the situation.

According to sources, the star wide receiver believes the Bengals misled him when they told him at the end of last season, and again during the offseason, he would get an extension that ultimately did not happen.

To reinforce his word and strengthen his position, Chase also has taken out a $50 million insurance policy on himself for this season to safeguard against injury and any potential lost earnings. As one source said about Chase, with the insurance policy in place, “He’s good.”

The Bengals always could try to jump-start negotiations with Chase. But Cincinnati has a long history of not negotiating deals during the season, and it is considered unlikely that will change, especially because Chase is said to have no intention of continuing contract talks and the team is focused on Sunday’s game against the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs.

The last time the Bengals extended one of their core players during the regular season was in 2015, when offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth signed a one-year extension. It was the only in-season contract extension the Bengals have done in the past 20 years, according to ESPN Research.

Chase and his representation believe the time to complete a deal was during the offseason, when the Bengals told him it would get done. The team first brought up this possibility at Chase’s exit meeting after last season then again at the NFL scouting combine.

Chase then watched other players in his 2021 draft class — including fellow wideouts Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jaylen Waddle and DeVonta Smith — land lucrative long-term deals earlier this year.

The Jacksonville Jaguars also paid the No. 1 pick from the 2021 draft, Trevor Lawrence, a deal that at the time made him one of the highest-paid players in NFL history.

Chase saw the numbers on his fellow draft classmates skyrocket while waiting for a deal of his own that did not come through. The three-time Pro Bowl player initially planned not to report to training camp for the first two days, according to league sources, and planned to arrive on the third day in time to collect his $4 million reporting bonus.

But due to a miscommunication and a misunderstanding, Chase reported to camp on time and made it seem as if talks were in a better spot than they actually were.

Chase and the Bengals spent much of the summer trying to work out a long-term deal that did not get resolved before Cincinnati’s regular season kicked off last Sunday with a loss to the visiting New England Patriots.

A new deal was expected to make Chase the NFL’s highest-paid receiver, beating the $35 million average annual value that his former LSU teammate Justin Jefferson got from the Minnesota Vikings earlier this year, according to sources. The issue was the structure of the deal and the payout of the money, which was not to Chase’s liking.

Sources told ESPN that at one point, Chase’s camp threatened that the receiver would sit out the first two games of the season, including this Sunday’s showdown at the Kansas City Chiefs, if a deal wasn’t reached. However, Chase eventually stepped in and made it clear he would play with or without a new contract, and he now is fully focused on the 2024 season.

Chase seemed focused on the Chiefs earlier this week when he emphasized that Cincinnati needs to be sharp and fully prepared for Kansas City’s defensive schemes, while adding that the Bengals “are the team to beat in the AFC.”

“Everybody knows that, bro,” Chase said Thursday. “It’s not ‘if.’ We are the team to beat in the AFC. And we know it. And we got to play like it too.”