The Cincinnati Bengals have made clear this week their intent to re-sign WR Tee Higgins and keep the band together. But Higgins has already been down this road, and has watched others take it as well. After the organization’s latest public showing of intent, the pending free agent seemed to take issue.
On Tuesday, Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin addressed Tee Higgins’ status, among other key players. “We want them signed”, he said, acknowledging that it won’t be easy to pull off. “Are we up to it? We are up to it. We’ve done a lot of these things”.
On Tuesday night, Higgins posted a single cryptic character on his X account: a baseball cap. The emoji has become a universal symbol of “cap”, which is a lie or untruth. And basically everybody is interpreting Higgins’ message to mean he isn’t buying what the Bengals are selling.
The Bengals selected Tee Higgins 33rd overall in the 2020 NFL Draft, the same year as Joe Burrow. The quarterback has been an outspoken advocate for his five-year teammate, putting public pressure on the Bengals to put their money where their mouth is.
Higgins played the 2024 season under the franchise tag, having one of his best seasons despite injury. He posted a career-high 10 touchdowns, made all the more impressive by Ja’Marr Chase’s feats. While Chase led the NFL in receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns, the Bengals still got production from Higgins.
“I think Tee Higgins is a fantastic football player, and I want him on my football team”, Tobin said. “Whenever I’m in charge of a football team, I want Tee Higgins, so I’m going to do what I can to get Tee Higgins. Our preference with Tee Higgins is to do a long-term agreement. Always has been, and it continues to be, and we’ll work hard to get that done”.
The Bengals can absolutely sign Tee Higgins to a long-term deal while also achieving their other major goals. They are preparing to make Chase the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history. They would also like to extend DE Trey Hendrickson, who once again hinted at a trade request. But Higgins seems to be the lowest priority.
And he has seen how this can play out. He watched former Bengals teammate Jessie Bates III go through it a couple years ago, and he saw that Bates ultimately had to make his money elsewhere. Higgins would be the top wide receiver on the market, so he won’t be cheap for Cincinnati.
While I’m sure Higgins’ preference is to remain with the Bengals, he also doesn’t want to shortchange himself. Could the Bengals be trying to play the media to curry favor and portray themselves as the good guys? The last time they negotiated with Higgins, they severely low-balled him. Putting out the narrative that they want to keep him puts the onus on Higgins if he is unwilling to accept a “sincere” offer.
