The Cincinnati Bengals are reportedly willing to pay around $70 million per season for quarterback Joe Burrow’s favorite targets, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins.

As reported by ESPN and NFL Network, the Bengals have made ‘significant progress’ in negotiations with both players’ agents and are expected to finalize long-term deals ‘in the coming days.’

As expected, Chase’s deal would make him the highest-paid non-quarterback in football at around $40 million per season, while Higgins could earn around $28 million a year.

The length of the deals has yet to be revealed.

Coupled with Burrow’s $46 million salary in 2025, the Bengals could be using around 40-percent of their salary cap space on just three players, depending on how the Chase and Higgins’ deals are structured. Burrow could also restructure his deal to accommodate his receivers.

Bengals made no secret of their intention to pay Chase when discussing his future at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis.

Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase (1) and his long-time teammate Tee Higgins

Burrow (left) has shined with Higgins (center) and Chase (right) in Cincinnati 

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‘He is going to end up being the No. 1 paid non-quarterback in the league,’ director of player personnel Duke Tobin said of Chase, who has played with Burrow since their LSU days.

‘We’re there,’ he continued. ‘Let’s get it done. The earlier we can do some of this stuff, the freer it gives us to build the rest of the team. We have other needs that we want to build, and so we want to get these kinds of things done early enough to where we can really focus on building out the rest of the football team, but they’re all priorities to us but the ones that aren’t signed, are the ones that are on the table first.’

Coach Zac Taylor reiterated Tobin’s statement and added the team also wants to extend Higgins’ contract and continue giving Burrow the playmakers that help make one of the league’s most dynamic pᴀssing attacks.

‘It’s good to have great players that want to be rewarded,’ Taylor said. ‘That’s a good problem to have.’

Chase led the league in receptions (127), yards receiving (1,708) and touchdown catches (17) this season, becoming just the sixth wide receiver in the Super Bowl era to achieve the receiving triple crown.

The Bengals picked up his fifth-year option of $21.816 million, but will give him a long-term deal in the range of $40 million per year. Higgins played last season on the $21.8 million franchise tag and was recently tagged again, but now appears to be getting the long-term deal he’s always sought in Cincinnati.

Higgins, 26, played in 12 games (nine starts) in 2024 and caught 10 TD pᴀsses with 73 receptions for 911 yards. He has 34 career touchdowns, 330 catches and 4,595 yards in 70 regular-season games (62 starts) since being selected in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft.

In an effort to free up some cap space, the Bengals are permitting All-Pro edge rusher Trey Hendrickson to seek a trade, two people with knowledge of the situation told The ᴀssociated Press.

The people spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss personnel moves.

ESPN first reported Hendrickson received permission to seek a trade after receiving a statement from the Bengals star.

‘It’s been an honor and a privilege to represent Cincinnati over the last four years,’ Hendrickson said in the statement. ‘I love this city and organization. I appreciate the privilege of now being allowed to explore my options.’

Hendrickson had 17 1/2 sacks last season for the second straight year. His 57 sacks since joining the Bengals in 2021 are third-most in the league over the past four seasons. He signed with Cincinnati after four seasons with New Orleans.

Cincinnati Bengals coach Zac Taylor speaks during the NFL Scouting Combine

The Bengals also re-signed durable defensive tackle B.J. Hill to a three-year, $33 million deal and agreed to terms with nose tackle TJ Slaton.

Running back Samaje Perine, who spent last season with the Chiefs and played for the Broncos in 2023, also agreed to a two-year deal to return to Cincinnati.

Hill, who turns 30 next month, has only missed two of a possible 114 games since breaking into the league as a third-round pick of the New York Giants in 2018.

Hill has recorded 23.5 sacks, 66 quarterback hits, 341 tackles, 16 pᴀsses defensed, 4 fumble recoveries and a pair of interceptions while making 67 starts for the Giants (2018-20) and Bengals.

According to NFL Next Gen Stats, he ranked ninth among all defensive tackles and nose tackles last season in run stop win rate at 37 percent.

The Bengals acquired Hill in an August 2021 trade that sent former first-round offensive lineman Billy Price to the Giants.

Slaton is a gap-clogger at 6-foot-5, 330, and started every game each of the past two seasons for the Packers. He’ll rejoin his former position coach, Jerry Montgomery, in Cincinnati. Montgomery coached Slaton from 2021-23 and is now D-line coach for the Bengals.

Perine, 29, played for the Bengals from 2020-22 and will be a backup to Chase Brown in 2025. Perine amᴀssed 92 rushing yards and 322 receiving yards with the Chiefs last season.