The next 10 days for the Cincinnati Bengals and Ja’Marr Chase are critical for any hope of a long-term contract extension happening with the star wide receiver before the season.

Chase “held in” during training camp as he’s seeking a new contract. As of Monday, the two sides have not come to an agreement on a long-term extension. The Bengals have made it clear they want to keep Chase in Cincinnati for the foreseeable future, but the two sides aren’t there yet with the regular season looming.

If the Bengals do want to keep Chase long-term, the extension should be worked out before Sept. 2 when the Bengals start their regular-season game-week preparation.

Here’s why: While Chase is under contract with the Bengals for the next two seasons, all of the top wide receivers from Chase’s draft class have received contract extensions this offseason – Jaylen Waddle, Amon-Ra St. Brown and Devonta Smith. The market was reset when Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson landed his record-setting deal in the spring.

Now is the time to get the deal done for Cincinnati. If Chase plays the upcoming season without a deal, it will only make things more expensive for the Bengals.

In conversations with an NFL league source, The Enquirer learned some background details about how the Vikings' decision to wait until this offseason to pay Jefferson impacted the final contract. Per a source with knowledge of the situation, if the Vikings had paid Jefferson what he originally asked for ahead of the 2023 season, they wouldn’t have had to pay what they are paying him now, by a significant amount.

The Vikings ended up giving Jefferson a historic, four-year deal worth $140 million, including $110 million guaranteed. Jefferson’s $35 million average-per-year salary is the highest at the wide receiver position.

Cincinnati’s front office has been preparing to pay quarterback Joe Burrow and Chase for years now. The team not reaching a long-term deal with wide receiver Tee Higgins is proof of the hard decisions the Bengals are forced to make to keep Chase and Burrow together. Burrow got a contract extension last year. And when the Bengals decided not to give Higgins a long-term deal, it was an indication the team is all in on paying Chase.

It's not a matter of if the Bengals want to pay Chase. They’ve made their stance clear in how important he is to the team, and their desire to keep him. For Cincinnati’s front office, it’s a matter of if they’ll cough up the money now ahead of dragging it into next year which will just make things more complicated for the team.

The market has been set for a while and became even more clear when the Dallas Cowboys and wide receiver CeeDee Lamb agreed on a four-year contract extension worth $136 million, with $100 million guaranteed.

Lamb’s new extension gives him an average annual salary of $34 million per year, $1 million less than Jefferson. Chase is viewed by most NFL pundits and coaches as a top-3 wide receiver in the league. And what the Bengals ask of Chase in their pass-first offense makes him even more valuable to his team than Lamb and Jefferson. The Cowboys and Vikings both run the ball more.

Chase is the Bengals' most versatile weapon on offense, as their game plans each week demonstrate. Coach Zac Taylor builds his game plan around ways to put Chase in favorable matchups the team can take advantage of. All of these factors continue to help build Chase's case for what the Bengals should pay him.

In three seasons with the Bengals, Chase has caught 268 passes for 3,717 yards and 29 touchdowns. He's a three-time Pro Bowler and earned the NFL's Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2021. The Bengals have advanced to the AFC championship game in two of Chase's three professional seasons.

So this begs the final question: If the Bengals have been planning for years to pay Chase, why would they risk costing themselves more money by waiting another year to get a deal done? Because that’s what will happen if Chase plays this season without a contract extension.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Why Cincinnati Bengals should pay star receiver Ja'Marr Chase now