ESPN’s First Take Perfectly Shuts Down Higgins/Chase Deal Critics
Credit: Cara Owsley via Imagn Images
The Cincinnati Bengals were at the epicenter of NFL discussions over the last week now that the Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins deals have been signed. Fans who spent the better part of three years expecting Higgins to be traded were gravely disappointed.
Bengals hands were tied but they now have 44% of their cap into THREE players.
— Reece (@reecebai05) March 17, 2025
Many fans and media have been questioning the Bengals spending a significant amount of their cap on the superstar trio for the remainder of their primes, claiming it made it impossible to build a championship roster. However, Mina Kimes used her time with Stephen A. Smith on First Take, to shut that nonsense down.
“I’m not going to come up here and say (that) it’s easier now that so much of their cap is tied up to two guys, three guys with Burrow and maybe four, if they keep Hendrickson,” Kimes said. “Obviously the job of the front office just got harder. But the more I thought about it, the more I decided they had to get this done last year with both of those players on the field, with Joe Burrow, best QBR football, second best EPA per play, so second most offensive efficient office. When one or both of them was off, (it) dropped to 18th. So if you’re going to tell me you are with these two players, you know you have not just a top five offense, a top two offense, I’m going to take that deal every time, even if it makes it harder to build the rest of the roster, because the unknown of what would happen if they had moved on; to me, that would have been the worst choice.”
In a world where narratives are amplified by Twitter trolls, the Bengals did what was best for the Super Bowl chances of their franchise. Ja’Marr Chase is a Hall-of-Fame level player who has a Jerry Rice-esque skillset, and Tee Higgins was drafted alongside Burrow and makes Chase’s life easier while accumulating strong production of his own. The dynamic duo, along with Mike Gesicki, were players who Burrow publicly pleaded the organization to re-sign, and that they did.
Joe Burrow has already proven he’s one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks, and the chemistry that all those players have developed will continue through at least through the end of the decade. While MVPs are always fun (and the Bengals have two in their history), the ultimate goal of winning a Super Bowl is what’s at stake here. Building an offense that has the ability to accomplish that goal is of the utmost importance, as Kimes went on to say.
“People say, “Well, if your quarterback is truly one of those dudes, if he is, as you guys say, one of the best, why does he need two receivers?” But team building isn’t about proving that your quarterback ranks XYZ in a vacuum. It’s not about winning MVPs and showing he can do more with less. It’s about getting to the Super Bowl, which is the premise’s question. This offense with those two receivers on the field, and this quarterback is a Super Bowl caliber offense. It’s such a good offense, the defense doesn’t even have to be good. They just need to (not be) what they were last year, and that, of course, is a challenge here.”
The Bengals had the ultimate, long term goal of doing what is best for their franchise. The star power of their offense is here to stay, and the Bengals’ ultimate goal of winning a championship with their Lombardi-caliber passing offense will be the team’s backbone. Yes, they still need to improve on defense, but the strength of the team will remain its strength through the entirety of the decade.
If you are a Patriots fan or Panthers fan reading this: if you want to go off about how the Bengals won’t have a defense while you all won’t have Tee Higgins on your roster while you continue to draft the N’Keal Harrys and the Jonathan Mingos of the world, be my guest. The explosive offense of Cincinnati will be here to stay for the foreseeable future, and the rest will be figured out as time goes on. There’s still time. Four years, in fact.
Up Next