Concerning details emerge regarding Ja'Marr Chase's contract negotiations with Bengals

Concerning details regarding Ja'Marr Chase's contract negotiations with the Cincinnati Bengals have emerged courtesy of Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk.

We already knew that Chase was unhappy with his lack of a long-term contract extension, and that he felt misled by the organization regarding the negotiations. But, apparently things were even worse than many realized.

From Florio:

"They’ll eventually give him a market-level deal. But they wanted to kick the can to 2025, because that meant paying one of the best receivers in football a measly $4.8 million in 2024. ... Behind the scenes, it was uglier than anyone realizes, with fights over fines and a belief by Chase that they’d broken their promise to pay him by offering a contract that looked good on the surface but that had a very bad structure."

Ja'Marr Chase deserves better from the Bengals

Honestly, this is embarassing for the Bengals. Chase clearly established himself as one of the best receivers in the entire league over his first three seasons, and the Bengals should have rewarded him for it. After all, they drafted him with the No. 5 overall pick in 2021, and he's lived up to all expectations.

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That's the goal: Draft good players, develop them and retain them. But, as has become customary with the Bengals, they've made things more difficult than necessary, and probably cost themselves in the process. With the way that he's performed this season -- leading the league in all major receiving categories -- Chase's value has only gone up. This fact isn't lost on his agent.

The way an organization treats its players says a lot about the organization, and the Bengals continue to treat basically everyone not named Joe Burrow pretty poorly. And in turn they hurt Burrow by not doing all they can to maximize his immense talent. With Chase being Burrow's top target, the team should have locked him up as soon as possible for as long as possible. But the fact that they didn't is unfortunately unsurprising.