Mike Florio pointed out how the “vibes” between Ja’Marr Chase and the Cincinnati Bengals have been “weird.” Chase just watched CeeDee Lamb get paid and might wonder when Mike Brown gives him the good news. Florio believes the media doesn’t pressure the Bengals like they do the Cowboys, and that’s why the Chase deal has not been done yet.

While their personalities are completely different, the only thing that binds Jerry Jones and Mike Brown together is their “cheap” spending habit. But would Brown’s pursuit to make financially sound decisions be his undoing? Ja’Marr Chase should be paid on priority, but it seems like the Bengals also don’t feel an “urgency” about it.

“The moment Justin Jefferson’s deal was done, I wrote on PFT, ‘Bengals you’re up,’” Mike Florio pointed out on PFT Live. “If he [Chase] wants $35.1 million new money average, you can get there because Chase has two years left at low amounts. It’s easy to get to a new money average of $35.1 million. Do it now. It’s never going to get cheaper; it’s never going to be any easier.”

Less than two weeks remain before the season starts. So, what does Ja’Marr Chase do? He pulled up to the practice and worked out with Joe Burrow. Many believe that the holdout was nothing but futile and all Chase did was rack up a huge amount of fine in the process. This is the last year of his 4-year $30.8 million rookie deal and he’s due $21.8 million next year on a fifth-year option.

A month back, Mike Brown talked to WLWT and said, “We are going to bend over backwards to make it happen. I can’t tell you when it’s going to get done,” and that the team will “try hard” to break the impasse with Chase. In the same breath, he also stated, “The reel has been cast,” which might mean that Bengals, a team that carries the stigma for being cheap, have already decided its course of action and it might be in Chase’s favor.

It is believed that the teams have the power to waive the hold-out fines any players accumulate during their rookie deal. Just like CeeDee Lamb, Ja’Marr Chase might have benefited if he didn’t show up at the training camp at all. Cowboys’ less-than-ideal preseason was enough to sway Jerry Jones in that direction. Florio also had an interesting take on this situation.

Jerry Jones’-like antics might work for Ja’Marr Chase too

Throughout Chase’s holdout, we didn’t hear a lot of news from the Insiders or the other mainstream media. That’s because Mike Brown’s personality might call him to be more poise and not give into controversies or cause a stir in the media: something Jerry Jones knows how to do well. His constant media presence might also have been a factor in Lamb’s 4-year $136 million deal.

“This is where you benefit from a small market team that the national media doesn’t really pay all that much attention to. Because if this was happening in Dallas…” said Florio, who was interrupted by Chris Simms, who talked about the bazillion times when Lamb’s name was mentioned in the mainstream media.

“I think Jerry Jones likes that [publicity] and this is a fundamental difference now. I think where Jerry Jones and Mike Brown, the owners of the Cowboys and Bengals respectively alike as they’re both cheap. But Jerry Jones knows how to take a controversy and milk it for everything it’s worth. Mike Brown doesn’t care about that, and Jerry Jones would say he should,” Florio expressed.

Not saying that Mike Brown is not as relevant, however, if he garnered more attention from the mainstream media, there would have been pressure to extend the best receiver on his team. However, there’s still some hope for Chase because the team might run into some cap space after the 53-man roster is finalized.