As an NFC executive at the NFL scouting combine considered the Cincinnati Bengals’ dilemma, the executive dismissed a commonly cited but not universally accepted theory.
No, the executive told Yahoo Sports three weeks ago, teams need not draw a red line for what percentage of the salary cap they spend at a position.
The salary cap keeps growing, and players age from rookie to veteran contracts. So the executive, who thought back to prior contract negotiations with players who were on rookie contracts during a Super Bowl run, offered a different guiding principle.
“Money chases the talent,” the executive said. “If you don’t have the talent to [extend], don’t do it. But if you say you have All-Pros at all of these positions, then at least try to.
“If you feel you can fill out the rest of your roster, then you don’t give a damn about percentage.”
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This week, the Bengals signaled to the NFL that they do not give a, well, dang about percentage when they extended receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins to mega-contracts.
Chase’s four-year, $161 million extension reset the salary record not only for receivers but also for all non-quarterbacks, averaging $40.25 million per year, per multiple reports, with $112 million in guarantees. Higgins and the Bengals ripped up the franchise tag in favor of a four-year deal worth $115 million. The first two years — about $57.5 million — are guaranteed.
The Bengals added these salaries to a roster on which Joe Burrow’s contract averages to $55 million a year.
How the Bengals will fill out the rest of their roster, and whether edge rusher Trey Hendrickson will be in that mix, remains to be seen. But many around the league already understand the Bengals’ decision to let their money chase their talent.
Because had the Bengals not extended both receivers for the long haul, they would have struggled to find comparable replacements. The 2025 NFL Draft is not a good time to need a game-changing receiver, several talent evaluators tell Yahoo Sports. Evaluators are skeptical of the ceiling and depth in this year’s wide receiver class.
“Usually you want four or five guys you feel like could be better than the potential top free agent on the market, whereas in this draft, there’s not many,” one AFC talent evaluator told Yahoo Sports. “There’s just not that many that are definitive upgrades from Day 1.”
After strong 2024 receiver class, talent evaluators see ‘dropping point’ in 2025 pool
Teams vary in how they ask their evaluators to scout a certain position, and evaluators within a certain team often vary in their grades as well. Grades must be filtered through the lens of when a scout visited the prospect’s school and whether the scout’s assignment was to scout deeply or broadly.
But talent evaluators from four different teams agreed that this year’s receiver class is significantly weaker than last year’s and compares unfavorably across the past five years.
Evaluators say they’ve identified receivers in the 2025 class to play any role, but they’re hard-pressed to find a player who projects to play every role.
“If you needed a No. 1 receiver, there’s not a surefire guy in this draft,” one NFC talent evaluator told Yahoo Sports. “There’s not No. 1 receivers, there’s a couple [No.] 2s and a lot of [No.] 3s.
“And then you get to a dropping point.”
An AFC talent evaluator agreed: “When I say there’s no true No. 1 receiver — to me, [that means] this guy is scheme-dynamic, meaning line him up and he would thrive in any spot.”
The AFC evaluator believed the receiver dip reflected the cyclical nature of prospects, much like the 2025 quarterback class is considered far less top-heavy than its predecessor. The 2024 receiver class featured Marvin Harrison Jr., Malik Nabers, Rome Odunze and Brian Thomas Jr. Seven receivers were drafted in the first round, with 10 off the board five picks into the second.
An NFC and AFC evaluator each said they graded just two receivers in the top two rounds this year. Receivers could be drafted more favorably than their grades due to demand exceeding supply, but teams should beware.
“It is just one of those years where there’s not a bunch of just scary dudes,” the NFC evaluator said. “I think NIL’s come into play where these guys decide to stay in school, and then I think it’s going to be one of those positions where you’re going to see some wow in the second, third round [guys drafted because] someone sees something in a kid and we’re going to be two or three rounds low on the guy compared to that team.
“Who cares? I mean, let’s get our guys right. But it wouldn’t shock me if, hey, one of these guys that we have in the fifth round goes in the second.”
The NFC and AFC evaluator didn’t just question the top-end caliber of receivers this year. Their top-100 boards also showed decline.
The NFC evaluator graded seven receivers in their top 100 a year after allocating 12 there; since 2020, they’d also graded years with 12, 11, seven and eight. The AFC evaluator was slightly more generous, with eight receivers this year after 14 in their top-100 last year. From 2021 to 2023, the evaluator awarded 11 top-100 grades to receivers each year.
For context, the same NFC evaluator included 23 defensive linemen in their 2025 top 100 while the AFC evaluator included 29. In today’s game, playing time between receivers and defensive linemen differs only slightly — teams often field three receivers at a time compared to three to four defensive linemen.
Multiple evaluators believed the draft trend influenced free-agency pursuits including the Los Angeles Rams’ signing of Davante Adams and the Pittsburgh Steelers’ trade and signing of DK Metcalf. It also explains in-house moves, like the Bengals’ latest spree.
Projecting Chase and Higgins in 2025 draft explains why Bengals paid up
The Bengals know they have a star in Burrow and have committed to supplying him with weapons accordingly. They’re trending toward a more pass-heavy gameplan than the Philadelphia Eagles, who extended both A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith a year ago, and thus could end up getting stronger return on investment from individual performances.
But Cincinnati will hope its return on investment at the team level is exactly what Philadelphia got the first season after extending not one but two receivers: a Lombardi Trophy.
“Since the moment we drafted them, we knew they were built for something special,” Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said Tuesday at Chase and Higgins’ joint contract news conference. “Now that this has concluded, the next step for us is a championship for these guys. And I think that’s a big reason why they wanted to be here.”
Chase is coming off a receiving triple crown year with a league-high 127 catches, 1,708 receiving yards and 17 touchdowns. He’s raced to 5,425 yards and 46 touchdowns since the Bengals drafted him fifth overall in 2021.
Higgins amassed 911 yards and 10 touchdowns in just 12 games last season. In five years with Cincinnati, he’s collected 4,595 yards and 34 scores.
Had the Bengals sought to replace Higgins or Chase in the draft this year, they’d have struggled to find a similar build.
Multiple talent evaluators agreed no 2025 rookie receiver projects to Chase’s level, one calling him “the best in the business lol” and the other saying “Ja’Marr would be the best one by far — hands down.”
Higgins strikes evaluators as a strong starter who makes his case as the best No. 2 in the game. That aligns with how multiple evaluators are projecting this class’s ceiling. One NFC evaluator said they believed Higgins would go in the “late teens, early twenties” in the 2025 draft class compared to the 33rd spot at which the Bengals took him in 2020.
The only receivers who project more highly are Colorado’s Travis Hunter, who could instead play defensive back as a pro, and possibly Arizona’s Tet McMillan, an NFC evaluator said.
“[Higgins’] game is very similar to McMillan,” the evaluator said. “They’re long, they have big catch radiuses, they have really good hands, they can go get the ball and go high-point it. But they’re not juicy, speed guys.
“They’re going to live covered, but they’re so big and long they can make plays.”
The NFC evaluator said their ideal role for McMillian would be as a strong No. 2 receiver.
That’s a great role to fill for a team — but it’s not one tantalizing enough to compel the Bengals to move on from their already-proven Higgins.
An AFC evaluator said teams should use this year’s draft class to find solid No. 2 and No. 3 receivers, each of whom teams tend to consider starter-level receivers. Could a receiver with one set of tools expand into another? That will need to be their teams’ goals, as the Bengals project to keep their hold on the top receiver duo into next offseason.
“They have met our expectations every step of the way, even exceeded them to this point,” Taylor said of Chase and Higgins. “They know there’s more for us to accomplish as a team. A lot more wins to be had.”
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