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Tee Higgins and Brian Callahan are in a two-man race to dominate the Cincinnati Bengals news cycle before the NFL playoffs even start.
With Callahan now up to four head coaching interviews with other teams and counting, he’s one of the hottest items on the market this hiring cycle.
And Higgins, slated for free agency this spring, is a candidate to receive the franchise tag, a long-term extension, or to outright leave on the open market, hence all the speculation — especially now that he’s just had another interview.
Here’s a look at the must-know Bengals news, notes and quotes for January 12.
Bengals players who will be free agents in March, ranked
A look at every upcoming Bengals free agent and ranking them in order of importance to the team’s long-term outlook.
Tee Higgins calls Bengals 'number one option' before free agency
Tee Higgins with an interesting interview before his trip to free agency this spring.
Two more for Brian Callahan
Two more teams requested interviews with Callahan, bringing his total to four so far. It should go without saying, but his work with the Jake Browning offense really caught some attention.
Brian Callahan's schedule
So far, we know which two teams Callahan will meet with first and when, though he’ll certainly work through all four (and counting?) before long.
Zac Taylor on avoiding slow starts to the season -- Bengals.com
Interesting perspective from Bengals head coach Zac Taylor when asked what the team can do starting next year to avoid those 0-2 starts to the season:
“It’s something we’ve got to really look at and assess. How do we start faster than we started the last two years? Whether that’s changing the structure of how we do things, those are all conversations that we’ll have as we move forward because starting 0-2 and putting ourselves in a hole really early is obviously not the start we’re looking for.
That’s something that we have to evaluate and it’s not something we have to do today. But it’s something we have to do over the next six months. Make sure we give our team the chance to start fast.”
The CTB tape
🗣️ *Loud CTB noises*
Mic’d Up | @altafiber pic.twitter.com/oOIKMDdrFO
— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) January 11, 2024