While the Pittsburgh Steelers should be in the market for another wide receiver in free agency, Tee Higgins of the Cincinnati Bengals will likely not be one of their targets. Indeed, it doesn’t sound as though he’ll be a target for anybody. According to reports, the Bengals intend to place the franchise tag on the fifth-year wide receiver.
“The writing is on the wall and all expectations are the Bengals will use a franchise tag on Higgins”, Paul Dehner Jr. writes for The Athletic. Cincinnati has until March 5 at the end of business hours to make the decision to tag him.
Precise figures are not available but Over the Cap projects the wide receiver franchise tag to come in at $21,665,000. That’s certainly a heft sum, coming in at the back end of the top-10 average annual salaries at the position. Significantly, QB Joe Burrow’s cap hit remains relatively low for the 2024 season at under $30 million.
In truth, 2024 is not the ideal time for Higgins to sign a long-term contract. He is coming off his worst professional season, even if largely due to Burrow’s injury. The wide receiver market is reasonably robust, but even more significantly, new deals will raise the price tag moving forward. After one offseason of failed extension talks, he knows how things go by now.
Among those prominent wide receivers due for new contracts is his teammate, Ja’Marr Chase. The Bengals could get that done this offseason, but could also wait until next year. Justin Jefferson and CeeDee Lamb will also soon reset the market.
And Higgins’ 42-reception, 656-yard, five-touchdown 2023 campaign is not the resume you want to lead with in free agency. Yes, he missed five games, but that still projects out to a 60-929-7 line over a full season. He’s generally done that or better.
Pocketing over $20 million to play in 2024 and hitting the open market a year later is not an undesirable outcome for Higgins, a second-round draft pick out of Clemson in 2020. Over his first three seasons, he caught 215 passes for 3,028 yards and 19 touchdowns. He also missed four games in that span.
And the Bengals could still work toward an extension until July if they do tag him. For all intents and purposes, they would have exclusive negotiating rights because nobody would give up significant draft capital.
The Bengals project to have plenty of cap space without the need to make cuts and restructures. Tagging him should not be a significant hindrance. They have worked toward this scenario for years to give themselves the option if things fell this way.
They understand that they are a Super-Bowl-caliber team when healthy. Having Burrow, Chase, and Higgins together makes them a deadly passing game. WR Tyler Boyd is also a free agent, so they will want to keep at least two of his three top targets. Boyd would be significantly cheaper, but Higgins is younger and more dynamic and impactful.
