The Cincinnati Bengals project to have more than $50 million in free cap space even after applying the franchise tag to wide receiver Tee Higgins.
Word went out Friday night that the Bengals have informed Higgins that they will apply the $21.8 million tag, making him the second-highest cap hit on the team in 2024 behind Joe Burrow ($29.7 million).
That chunk of change might have hurt the Bengals more were it not for the news that came down earlier in the day that same Friday — the NFL revealed the 2024 salary cap number as much higher than anticipated, leaving the Bengals as big winners.
As of now, with the cap adjusted to $255.4 million and accounting for the Higgins cap hit and $10.7 million in rollover money from last year, Spotrac still has the Bengals at $52,463,511 in free cap space.
That’s a massive number the team will stretch to sign a draft class, retain other key free agents (Jonah Williams, Tyler Boyd, DJ Reader, etc.), sign outside free agents and otherwise after spending massive money the last few offseasons around Joe Burrow.
Don’t count out the Tee Higgins situation, either. The team has until July 15 to reach an extension with him now and the early tag could mean they will consider a trade, which would remove the cap hit from the books.
But for now, the Higgins tag was never going to hurt a team with a top-10 cap number. That’s even more so the case after the massive $30ish million spike to the salary cap.
