Bengals WR Tee HigginsJeff Moreland/Icon Sportswire through Getty Pictures
The NFL’s 2024 deadline for groups to increase franchise-tagged gamers will cross at 4 p.m. ET on Monday. Apparently, this 12 months’s deadline is barely related for the Cincinnati Bengals and standout receiver Tee Higgins.
Higgins stays the one franchise-tagged participant who has not already obtained an extension. In accordance with NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport, the 25-year-old will not be getting one this season:
Ian Rapoport @RapSheet
It has appeared evident for a while, however for readability:
The #Bengals and star WR Tee Higgins is not going to do an extension by Monday’s deadline. He is signed his franchise tag, he’ll play on it, then be one of many high free brokers within the 2025 offseason. pic.twitter.com/kO8omw8Gol
Playing on the franchise tag isn’t the outcome for which Higgins had hoped. He initially requested a trade but eventually sign his one-year tender. At the time, he sounded interested in continuing his relationship with the Bengals beyond 2024.
“I’ve grown a love for Cincinnati that I didn’t think I would. [I’m] looking forward to it,” Higgins told reporters in April.
Nonetheless, the Bengals have not appeared as excited by locking up Higgins long-term.
ESPN’s Ben Child reported in Could that Higgins and Cincinnati hadn’t mentioned an extension in over a 12 months.
Tagging Higgins with out then extending him was a calculated danger by the Bengals, however it’s one which makes loads of sense. On one hand, they run the danger of dropping the two-time 1,000-yard receiver in 2025 free company for nothing greater than a possible compensation choose. On the opposite, they head into 2024 with choices on learn how to deal with his future.
Cincinnati’s greatest impediment in protecting Higgins is the presence of No. 1 receiver Ja’Marr Chase. He turned extension-eligible this offseason and will simply justify matching Justin Jefferson’s new market-leading contract value $35 million yearly.
In solely three seasons, Chase has racked up 3,717 receiving yards, 29 touchdowns and three Professional Bowls.
Paying each Chase and Higgins on long-term contracts might be a monetary problem, particularly with Cincinnati additionally paying quarterback Joe Burrow a market-topping contract. The Bengals are projected to be a middle-of-the-pack group by way of 2025 cap area with $49.1 million out there.
Nonetheless, it could possibly be doable, and the Bengals have to first work out how a lot they’ll be paying Chase within the foreseeable future. They will then know what kind of a proposal they’ll make Higgins between the top of the season and the beginning of 2025 free company.
Extending Higgins first may need made it extraordinarily troublesome for the Bengals to present Chase the contract he desires—they most likely ought to have moved on Chase’s deal earlier than Jefferson put pen to paper, however that is one other dialog.
Permitting Higgins to play on the tag may even give Cincinnati an opportunity to guage whether or not protecting each him and Chase is a important want. Higgins is anticipated to function the No. 2 receiver this season, however the Bengals will get a chance to see how gamers like rookie receiver Jermaine Burton and free-agent tight finish Mike Gesicki match into the equation.
Gesicki seems set to spend a good period of time as Cincinnati’s slot receiver, a task beforehand held by departed receiver Tyler Boyd.
“Gesicki, that is an enormous slot receiver,” cornerback Mike Hilton stated, per Geoff Hobson
of the group’s official web site. “So that you get that 11 look. We all know he
can play on the road, However when he makes his cash, he is break up out
getting these matchups.”
If Burton and Gesicki flash sufficient potential this season, the Bengals might determine that protecting Higgins at a market value—seemingly within the $23 million annual vary that Calvin Ridley bought this offseason—is not value it.
And whereas the very best probability to maximise Higgins’ commerce worth would have been earlier than the 2024 draft, Cincinnati can nonetheless gauge his commerce worth between now and the November 5 commerce deadline.
After all, by not acquiescing to Higgins’ preliminary commerce calls for, the Bengals additionally make sure that their second-best pass-catcher might be on the sector as Burrow seems to make his method again from a season-ending wrist damage. Cincinnati is hoping {that a} wholesome Burrow will put it again in Tremendous Bowl competition. Having Higgins alongside for the experience will definitely assist.
The Bengals made the proper transfer with Higgins because it pertains to the 2024 season, they usually nonetheless have choices in relation to his future. For now, these choices simply do not embody extending him forward of Week 1.