Tee Higgins’ pursuit of a long-term contract will be put on hold as the Cincinnati Bengals are exercising the franchise tag to keep their star wide receiver for at least the next season. This is the second consecutive season in which they have used the franchise tag on the 26-year-old and he is now set to be paid $26.2 million for the upcoming year which will count directly against the salary cap.
Cincinnati has been clear about their desire to keep Tee Higgins and Ja’Marr Chase in place as the wide receiver core around Joe Burrow. The star pass catchers have an argument for the best duo in the NFL and are coming off a season in which they combined for 2,619 receiving yards and 27 total touchdowns. They were far from the issue on this Bengals team which finished the season 9-8 and missed out on the playoffs.
While Ja’Marr Chase stole the spotlight by leading the NFL in receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns last season, Higgins was plenty productive himself. He finished the season ranked 18th in fantasy points based on DraftKings scoring with 229.1 on the season and his 19.1 fantasy points per game ranked sixth. Chase led all wide receivers in reach of these categories.
The usage of the franchise tag prevents Higgins from hitting the open market. While it is not the security of the long-term deal he desired, he is set to make 120% of last season’s salary which comes out to the $26.2 million number. This also eliminated the risk of a team getting involved and further driving up the price with still plenty of work to do this offseason.
On the negative side, it is not the best look for a franchise to use the tag for two consecutive years on the same player. Good franchises take care of their stars or move on from them if their future outlook is not aligned, and Cincinnati continues to keep the pass-cacher in limbo here. Higgins has been open about his desire for a long-term contract with the risk carried by going season-by-season in mind. He also did not seem overly thrilled at the announcement based on his post on X (formerly known as Twitter).
If things go south, in theory, the Bengals could trade Higgins on the franchise tag. This would be an interesting way of making sure you don’t lose a player for nothing which would have been possible in free agency. For the time being this does not seem to be the gameplan as CInincatti will now shift its focus to building up the defense to match their playoff-caliber offense.
This also is the first significant domino to fall in the wide receiver market for the offseason. Chris Godwin, Amari Cooper, Stefon Diggs, Marquise Brown, and DeAndre Hopkins are some of the top names expecting new deals, while there is plenty of buzz regarding Cooper Kupp being traded from the Rams.
Teams like the Patriots and Chargers appear primed to take a leap forward this offseason and add to their list of weapons with Higgins no longer being an option on the board. Cincinnati still has plenty of work to do as they attempt to round out their roster and return to the true contender conversation for this upcoming season, but ensuring Higgins will be back in uniform next year isn’t a bad place to start.
Despite missing the playoffs entirely last year, the Bengals currently hold the fourth-best odds of winning the AFC at +850 odds on DraftKings Sportsbook. They also hold the seventh-best odds of winning next year’s Super Bowl at +1800 odds.
