Despite the ongoing rumors, no one is really expecting the Cincinnati Bengals to trade wide receiver Tee Higgins this offseason.

For some reason, rumors have persisted early in the offseason that Cincinnati could be looking to trade Higgins.

There haven't been any credible reports that suggest the Bengals are ready to move on from the talented wide receiver.

One reason why the rumors haven't gone away is because of what we saw happen in the NFL last offseason.

Two superstar wide receivers and one budding superstar wide receiver were surprisingly traded before the 2022 season.

No one expected Tyreek Hill, Davante Adams, or AJ Brown to get traded last year.

But that's exactly what happened. And in Brown's case, the Tennessee Titans spent much of the offseason attempting to squash trade rumors before ultimately dealing Brown to the Philadelphia Eagles on draft night.

Essentially, you can never rule anything out when it comes to the NFL.

NFL insider Albert Breer pointed out one particular scenario this week where it would make some sense for the Bengals to trade Higgins.

In a column for Sports Illustrated, Breer suggested that Cincinnati should go ahead and trade Higgins now if they don't think they're going to re-sign him.

Breer's logic is that the Bengals would be better off with a young wide receiver on a rookie contract than they would be with just one more year of Higgins.

From SI.com:

So the question, to me, isn’t if you want Higgins on your team (you do). It’s whether you can sign him. And if you can’t, you would be better off with Jordan Addison, Jaxon Smith-Njigba or Quentin Johnston, with the pick you’d get in a trade, for the length of a rookie deal than Higgins for one more year.

It's going to be tough for the Bengals to extend Higgins. With Joe Burrow likely to receive a mega extension this offseason and Ja'Marr Chase in line for an extension next offseason, it's fair to wonder if Cincy has enough room to sign Higgins to a long-term deal.

Higgins might not be the WR1 in Cincinnati, but he could easily be a top wide receiver for another team. It seems unlikely that the Bengals would be willing to pay multiple wide receivers WR1-type money.

One scenario that Cincy could consider would be keeping Higgins in 2023 (run it back one more time with Higgins, Chase, and Tyler Boyd), franchise tagging him next offseason, and then trading him to a team that can work out an extension with him (what the Packers did with Adams and the Raiders trade last year). That would allow the Bengals to enjoy one more season of Higgins and still get something out of him in a trade.

There are several different scenarios the Bengals can consider. But I'd bet right now that their focus is getting back to the Super Bowl in 2023. And because that's likely their main focus, I'd bet on Higgins sticking around in Cincy this season.

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