Latest RB mega deals make Chase Brown's Bengals contract outlook even worse

The Cincinnati Bengals have one of the best and most underrated running backs in the NFL in Chase Brown. The former Fighting Illini had to bide his time behind Joe Mixon and fight off competition from Zack Moss, who was handed the starting job in 2024.

Since his arrival via the fifth round of the 2023 NFL Draft, Brown has been both underutilized and underpaid. However, since taking over the lead back role in 2024, Brown has shown why he was a perfect fit for Cincinnati to begin with.

This offseason, with several new contract extensions and free-agent signings around the league at the running back position, the cost of doing business with Brown continues to mount. As does the acknowledgment that Brown is criminally underpaid. 

Brown’s contract looks ridiculously worse by the day

Brown’s woefully low contract continues to look worse with each passing fifth-year option, free agent deal, and contract extension signed. The latest are Bijan Robinson’s, Jahmyr Gibbs’, and Jonathan Taylor’s newly inked deals. 

While no one expects a Chase Brown extension this year or a new contract next offseason, to reach the heights of those three aforementioned agreements, his second NFL contract deserves to be significant. More significant than some around the league, including his own team, are expecting to pay. 

Spotrac places Brown’s next contract at four years, $52.3 million, with a per-year average of $13 million. That would be the 10th-highest average after the four significant deals this offseason for Robinson, Gibbs, Walker, Breece Hall, Devon Achane, and now Taylor.

With what Brown brings to Cincinnati, he should be in at least the $14 million range this season. Yet this season, in the final year of his fifth-round rookie contract, he will make $3.7 million. 

Nevertheless, even including this scheduled pay bump, the annual average of Brown’s contract is less than Samaje Perine’s and 2025 sixth-rounder Tahj Brooks’. 

Real fantasy players respect Brown’s value

Leave it up to fantasy football, again, to establish that Brown is a top-10 RB in the NFL. This time, it is ESPN's rankings that list Cincinnati’s RB1 as the tenth-best back according to their fantasy football draft rankings.

Dave Kluge of Football Guys places Brown as RB5 in his Fantasy Football Rankings. That is extremely high praise considering players like Saquon Barkley, Kenneth Walker III, D’Von Achane, and Derrick Henry are behind Brown on this list. 

Of Brown, Kluge writes, “Brown sputtered early in the season, but earned his preseason price tag as an elite RB1 over the second half of the season when Joe Burrow returned.”

Former Seattle Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III inked a free agent deal with Kansas City that made him the sixth-highest-paid running back. Now, after the Robinson, Gibbs, and Taylor extensions, Walker has fallen to the ninth-highest-paid at the position in extremely short order. 

That should spell good news for Brown, who was already looking at a top-10 annual average at around $13 million. Walker is making $14.3 million per year.

However, will the Bengals be willing to treat Brown as one of the best ten running backs in the NFL?

Brown could earn above that $14 million mark from a team looking for a do-it-all back, although that would unfortunately likely come from changing teams. 

Brown could make Bengals pay even more

We hope that the Bengals do not have Brown play out the final season of his rookie deal when he is such an integral part of the offense, rushing, catching, and pass protection. 

However, if that comes to pass, which looks like it will be the case while the team ponders other contract extensions for Turner and Dax Hill, Brown can go out and rush for 1,400 yards in the regular season like Robinson and earn Super Bowl MVP like Kenneth Walker did last season, thereby putting the Bengals into a similar corner that Turner has a chance of doing himself.  

In that case, he could price himself out of Cincinnati’s budget. And while the franchise tag is still on the table, which would come at a relatively low price compared to other positions, the way things are going, or not going, with Turner and Hill, the front office might need to employ that elsewhere. 

Perhaps being the 10th-highest-paid RB would get a deal done between the two sides. It is probably higher than the Bengals would like to go and lower than what Brown would want. 

Hopefully, Brown and the team will find a way to work things out in a way that keeps our favorite running back in the Queen City for a few more seasons. But at a significantly higher salary, which puts him among the top 10 earners in the position and acknowledges his immense yet undervalued worth to the team. 

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