The Cincinnati Bengals placed the franchise tag on wide receiver Tee Higgins on Monday for the second year in a row. The franchise tag will prevent Higgins from reaching from free agency as the Bengals intend to "work toward a long-term deal in Cincinnati" with Higgins.
Higgins confirmed that the Bengals were tagging him by posting "tag." on X.
Bengals teammate and wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase appeared to also react to the news on Instagram. Chase posted a picture of Joe Burrow giving side-eye to his Instagram stories with a small gif of a man looking at his phone and going "What?" Chase tagged Higgins on the post.
Ja'Marr Chase on Instagram, reacting to the Tee Higgins tag news: pic.twitter.com/CZYM9bdvps
— Cincinnati 💔 (@CincyProblems) March 3, 2025
The tag is placed on Higgins less than a week after Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin said that their "preference" is to get a long-term deal done with Higgins.
"Our preference with Tee Higgins is to do a long-term agreement," Tobin said at the combine. "Always has been, it continues to be, and we'll work hard to get that done."
Shortly after those comments, Higgins posted a "cap" emoji on his X page.
The Bengals have been unable to get a deal done with Higgins over the last two offseasons, but seem to want to change that this time around. The only issue? Cincinnati likely has to pay Chase this offseason, and potentially defensive end Trey Hendrickson as well.
Though the Philadelphia Eagles have shown that teams can pay a quarterback and multiple star wide receivers at once, it isn't necessarily an easy task, especially since both Chase and Higgins could command top-five receiver money.
The Bengals have until July 15 to get a long-term deal done with Higgins, or he would be set to make a guaranteed $26.2 million in 2025.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Ja'Marr Chase Reacts to Bengals Tagging Tee Higgins With Telling Instagram Story.
