The Cincinnati Bengals are more than willing to allow WR Tee Higgins to play under his $21.8 million franchise tag. But they are not willing to pay him nearly that much on a long-term extension, apparently.
“The Bengals never approached the $20 million range for Higgins”, Kelsey Conway writes for the Cincinnati Enquirer. Rarely do you ever hear of contract negotiations with tagged players that don’t use the tag as a starting point.
In this case, however, the Bengals may not want to invest in Higgins for the long term. They know that they need to sign WR Ja’Marr Chase to a massive long-term extension either this offseason or next. They still want to maximize their Super Bowl window for 2024, however, so were willing to pay the one-year premium.
Conway writes that the Bengals’ offer to Tee Higgins’ camp was so low that they never even discussed guarantees. One wonders how much legwork “approached” is doing here. Did they offer him a $15 million APY contract?
Higgins reportedly sought a new contract in the range of players like Terry McLaurin, Deebo Samuel, and Michael Pittman Jr. All three are making around $23-24 million, which is the bottom end of top-10 salaries. Tyreek Hill reset the market with a $30 million APY deal, with A.J. Brown currently at the top at $32 million. Conway writes that the two sides haven’t even discussed his contract in over a year, so they clearly have no intention of offering him a fair-market extension.
The problem for Higgins is that he is always the WR2 in Chase’s shadow. Chase blazed onto the scene in 2022 with an All-Pro rookie season. In three years, he has 268 receptions for 3717 yards and 29 touchdowns in 45 games.
Higgins has played in 13 more games but has fewer receptions, receiving yards, and touchdowns. Last season, missing five games due to injury, he caught 42 passes for 656 yards and five touchdowns. Of course, QB Joe Burrow also missed extended time, hurting the entire offense.
Without Burrow, the Bengals missed the playoffs, but still posted a winning 9-8 record. They reached the conference finals in each of the previous two seasons, indeed coming up just shy of a Super Bowl trophy in 2021.
That’s the thing. The Bengals know they have a championship-caliber team. They just don’t know how long they can afford to pay everybody. Tee Higgins will make the kind of money he’s looking for in free agency next year. But in the meantime, he may just have to play out the franchise tag.
You may recall that Higgins requested a trade and acknowledged as much. However, he basically admitted that he expects to play for the Bengals this season as well. Unlike certain other teams, Cincinnati doesn’t mind keeping hostages. As of now, Higgins appears to be on the same path as former Bengals S Jessie Bates III, not to his own surprise.
