Bengals quickly tagging WR Tee Higgins now clears several paths for the offseason and beyond
It was expected to happen, just not this quickly.The Cincinnati Bengals are going to place the franchise tag on wide receiver Tee Higgins. The news was reported three days into the two-week window to tag the 25-year old wideout.What's happening now is fairly clear. What's happening next is a lot more ambiguous. Higgins is set […]
It was expected to happen, just not this quickly.
The Cincinnati Bengals are going to place the franchise tag on wide receiver Tee Higgins. The news was reported three days into the two-week window to tag the 25-year old wideout.
What's happening now is fairly clear. What's happening next is a lot more ambiguous.
Higgins is set to be the first franchise player of the entire 2024 offseason, and the ramifications of that point us in several directions.
Why did the Bengals tag Tee Higgins so quickly?
This is biggest question. The Bengals aren't strangers to the tag as they've used it now three times in five years with A.J. Green and Jessie Bates III being the previous cases. Those decisions came pretty late in their respective two-week windows, or at least reports of those decisions didn't leak so early in the process.
Cincinnati may've also quickly given up on Green and Bates like they seem to have done with Higgins, but why was this instance reported with such haste?
The easiest answer is after quickly restarting negotiations with Higgins' representation, David Mulugheta of Athletes First, the Bengals knew they weren't going to see eye-to-eye on a new contract. It was the same story last offseason when both sides reportedly never came close to an agreement.
Despite an objectively down year for Higgins in 2023 featuring career-lows in every major category in 12 games played, the status quo for his side remains.
The news came hours after two major developments. First, it was reported by Sportskeeda.com's Tony Pauline that the Bengals were engaging in extension talks with Higgins once more, and would tag him if negotiations failed. Whomever leaked that to Pauline had good reason to do so, as it put pressure on Mulugheta to meet them halfway.
Less than an hour after that report came the news of a record-breaking $30 million jump in the 2024 salary cap. This also established franchise tag values for each position, which became smaller relative to the new cap ceiling than expected.
That last part is important, because it potentially opens the door for another leverage tactic from the front office.
Using the franchise tag twice on Tee Higgins is now a more palatable option
Such a spike for the cap this year makes it pretty clear that next year's cap will also be larger than we anticipated just a day ago. That eventual 2025 increase in cap won't impact how much it will cost the Bengals to use the tag on Higgins that year.
A second tag on Higgins in 2025 will cost 120% of his 2024 salary of $21,816,000, which equates to $26,179,200. If the cap were to increase another $30 million, it would give the Bengals the space to make it work.
Getting tagged twice is not what any player wants, so the Bengals threatening that possibility by quickly using the first tag could be a tactic to get Mulugheta to play ball.
Having roster control of a top player is obviously in the Bengals' best interest, but the player has some power here as well. Higgins watched Bates sit out of all offseason activities in 2022 after a new deal wasn't agreed on. The Bengals had to get through all of training camp without him.
Do the Bengals want that to happen again? This time it would be one of Joe Burrow's most important teammates not getting valuable reps ahead of what they hope to be a Super Bowl run.
Should the Bengals fear this ahead of time, there's always the elephant in the room they can finally address.
Trading Tee Higgins now becomes more likely
Remember, this is still the Bengals we're talking about. They don't openly advertise a player to be for sale, and they certainly don't take the first offer that comes to them unless a player is actively holding them hostage ala Carson Palmer and Carlos Dunlap.
The situation isn't there yet with Higgins, but to avoid another Bates-like offseason, trading him prior to the NFL Draft may be their best overall option remaining.
Tagging Higgins once is costing them about $22 million in both cap and cash. Tagging him twice will cost them about $47 million over two years.
Is a receiver who's not even the most consistently productive in his own offense worth so much investment in a short span of time?
If the Bengals can only have Higgins for two more contentious years with extremely high cap hits, they'd be foolish not to entertain what draft capital they could get in exchange for his services.
That's what the next two weeks are for. The Bengals will be at next week's NFL Scouting Combine, rostering what could be the only reported franchise player in the league. Executives will talk, rumors will swirl, and a market will be set before long.
When the new league year rolls around, the Bengals better be prepared to filter through offers. Making a move could be their wisest decision.
There are many paths the Bengals can go down from here, and timing is the reason why all this is possible. If negotiations were on-going throughout the two-week window (which they could, but not likely at this point), then their commitment to keeping Higgins long-term would've been more evident.
How the Bengals feel about Higgins shouldn't change. They should feel as if he's a core member of the franchise; an integral component towards hoisting a Lombardi Trophy in 50 weeks time. They have never been willing to proactively move on from a player like him before unless they were forced to do so.
The most likely scenario is Higgins plays on this tag and leaves next year. All the other doors are also now in the picture.
Bengals GM gets real about Tee Higgins’ future
The situation is much more fluid than it was last year.
