John Sheeran talks about the aftermath of the Ja'Marr Chase/Tee Higgins signing, with the national media stuff unable to grasp this move.
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00:00The NFL media has been losing their minds at the idea of the Bengals paying both Jamar Chase and
00:05Tee Higgins at the same time and per usual they're missing the mark completely and in this video
00:10I'll explain exactly why.
00:15Hi again Bengals fans John Sheeran of A to Z Sports Cincinnati here and I think like a lot
00:19of you guys I was very surprised by the overall reaction to the Jamar Chase and Tee Higgins news
00:25and I think it's because we often live in an echo chamber where we just kind of interact with people
00:29who follow the same team that we follow so all of us kind of knew that signing Jamar Chase and
00:34Tee Higgins was going to be the plan that Cincinnati was trying to execute we didn't
00:38know for a fact if they were going to be able to execute it but we knew that was the plan
00:43going into this month and when it happened we weren't too surprised by both of them happening
00:48at the same time but I think I can definitively say right now that the entire rest of the NFL
00:53did not expect it to happen like this and to be quite honest with you I can't really blame
00:58them that much because what we witnessed over the past couple of days is beyond rare like I'll be
01:02totally upfront about this I had an expectation that the Tee Higgins contract would get done
01:06before for agency and then they would focus on for agency and they would focus then on Trey
01:11Hendrickson Jamar Chase in whatever order it would be but they would be taken care of later in the
01:15offseason but as soon as for agency started it did kind of seem like they were working on both Higgins
01:20and Chase at the same time and then that report came out on Friday that both contracts were pretty
01:24much finalized and they were just crossing t's and dotting i's and at that point you kind of
01:28figured that both of them would be announced at the same time but again that just doesn't happen
01:33in the NFL or really just in sports in general you never see two contracts of this magnitude
01:38for the same team at the same position get announced and finalized and then signed
01:43simultaneously and while there are now clearly countless people who are so very much against
01:47what the Bengals are trying to do here and pay both of these guys at the same time I really do
01:52feel like the simultaneous aspect of this is being overlooked because what I think a lot of
01:57people thought this was going to be is that they get a deal done with one and then they try to make
02:01a decision as to whether or not they want to get the other guy done when in reality this was a
02:05packaged deal and we know this because when it was first reported that the deals had been agreed to
02:09on Sunday night obviously that report is coming from the agent's mouth and Ari Mirov of the 3013
02:14reported that Rocky Arsenault told the Bengals that you don't get to sign Jamar if you don't
02:18also sign Tee and then when Jamar was asked about that at the joint press conference with Tee Higgins
02:22after he signed the contract he said yeah you can you can ask Rocky about that but would you
02:26want to play without Tee which is more or less just a wink and nod yes as soon as Higgins joined
02:30forces with Chase under the same representation it was no longer an either or situation it was
02:36either we both stay or we're both gone and I can't quite fathom how that's not getting across
02:41to the people who think that this was a stupid decision because when do you ever see in the NFL
02:46two star wide receivers who could command so much leverage on the open market make the conscious
02:52decision to both stay on the same team and risk hurting their own production risk hurting their
02:58own spotlight like these guys are known for being divas across the NFL that's not the case in
03:03Cincinnati and for whatever reason we can't just sit back and say damn that's cool as hell Jamar
03:09Chase is now the highest paid non-quarterback in NFL history a title he just earned from the guy
03:13who just had it a week ago he could have been like this is my receiver room this is my offense
03:17I'm him this is my show but when a reporter tried to label Tee Higgins as a number two receiver as
03:22the highest paid number two receiver he immediately said he's not number two he's a 1a and for the guy
03:26who just won the triple crown at 24 years old there is no concern here about egos or the targets
03:32that he's getting he just wants to play with his best bud and Tee Higgins man 28.75 million dollars
03:38per year is obviously a lot of money for anyone but he would have seen significantly more than
03:42that if he were to hit the open market if the New England Patriots had a chance to pay Tee Higgins
03:47they would have paid him at least at least four million dollars more per year and that's the
03:51future that he could have chosen he could have chosen to wait this out even more to get the best
03:56possible deal with the agent that he had previously but no he wanted to stay with Chase he wanted to
04:02take less to play with the team that he grew up loving I don't know man if you can't see that
04:08then this story just isn't for you what we just witnessed may never be replicated again
04:12people are already talking about it like it's going to be a future case study for NFL teams
04:16to evaluate and examine on if it actually worked and I'm just saying man who cares if it works at
04:21this point this is so cool and unprecedented that these two guys with all the power in the world
04:27to be the guy on their own team are just like no we want to be together and if that doesn't
04:32garner your respect I'm not sure what will