The Cincinnati Bengals were always going to be in for a challenging offseason. After riding high on several rookie deals that helped bring the team to the Super Bowl just a few years ago, it was time to pay the piper.

Superstar wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins were due for extensions that would have to be sizeable, as was defensive stalwart Trey Hendrickson, and the team was getting pressure from quarterback Joe Burrow to figure out a way to retain everyone and make another run.

The math to make all that work would already have been challenging enough, but at the NFL combine, Bengals director of player personnel and de facto general manager Duke Tobin made his job that much harder while speaking with reporters.

When asked about how the team was planning to deal with the extensions that were due, Tobin all but brushed off Chase’s upcoming deal, saying, “Ja’Marr is always going to be our priority. He’s a fantastic football player. He’s going to end up being the No. 1 paid non-quarterback in the league. We’re there. Let’s get it done.”

The second half of Tobin’s quote would prove even more foreboding. “The earlier we can do some of this stuff, the freer it gets us to build the rest of the team. We have other needs that we want to build.”

Since Tobin made those statements in February, the market for “highest-paid non-quarterback in the league” has been reset twice—first by Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby ($35.5 million per year) and then again by Browns edge Myles Garrett ($40 million per year).

Suddenly, the floor for the Bengals’ negotiations with Chase was raised—and by players at a wholly different position no less. Fans across social media were quick to point out Tobin’s folly.

NFL legend J.J. Watt also got in on the action, critiquing Tobin and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones—who is due to pay Micah Parsons sooner rather than later—for waiting to get deals with their star players done.

Had Tobin given himself just a little wiggle room in his comments, or heck, played entirely coy, negotiations could have gone differently. Further, if Tobin and the Bengals had simply paid Chase before Garrett’s deal was made, they could have largely gotten away with the comments with financials relatively unscathed.

Instead, Chase’s camp can now walk into negotiations asking, “so how much higher are we going than $40 million?” and see where the conversation goes.

In addition to the struggles with Chase’s new deal, things aren’t going stellar with the Bengals’ other two potential extensions either—Hendrickson just requested and received permission to seek a trade, and Higgins got hit with the franchise tag for a second straight year, and is clearly not very happy about it.

Nothing about running an NFL team is easy, but let this be a lesson for general managers across the league—don’t make your job harder than it already is.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Bengals GM Learns Harsh Lesson in Why You Never Negotiate in Public.