I’m off skiing this week, so we’ve got an abbreviated version of NFL notes coming to you on Wednesday …
• The Cincinnati Bengals have been tight-lipped on their intentions to franchise tag Tee Higgins, but it’d make some sense to go through with it based on the number and the market.
Sources say the Bengals haven’t communicated a decision on the tag to Higgins or his camp yet, which is standard practice for these situations, allowing for the team to use the presence of the tag for leverage without committing to the number.
Higgins’s 2025 tag number will be a minimum of $26.172 million (120% of his 2024 tag number). The way the math works when a player is tagged is that you take the sum of two tags, and that becomes the guarantee and the amount a player is paid the first two years of a new contract. A third tag would be 144% of this year’s number or the exclusive-rights quarterback tag, whichever is higher.
Higgins’s new agent, Rocky Arceneaux, could hold the Bengals to the quarterback number—which would be $40 million-plus. Or the sides could use the 144% figure, $37.698 million, as a working number. If you add that to this year’s number, you get to $63.870 million. So, essentially, a $64 million guarantee on a deal averaging $32 million per year.
It’s a lot if you’re also extending Ja’Marr Chase. And Higgins might rather play it out. But given where the team is right now—with its all-world quarterback publicly stumping for guys to get paid, and where the market is going at that position—it’s a little easier to swallow.
Then there’s the idea that Higgins could be dealt. Outside of the 26-year-old, there are a host of third-contract veterans such as Stefon Diggs, Chris Godwin and Amari Cooper hitting the market, and you could see where someone might be willing to flip the Bengals a draft pick or two for a tagged Higgins.
Anyway, we have a little less than two weeks until the tag deadline (March 4), and the Bengals have three big contract situations to juggle (Higgins, Chase, Trey Hendrickson).
• Since I’ve already written a lot on the Matthew Stafford situation, there’s just one thing to add as the Los Angeles Rams work through potential solutions—this is a good example of how teams Band-Aid deals by kicking the can down the road.
Last year’s compromise was, on paper, a $5 million raise/market correction for 2024. But that money wasn’t “new.” Instead it was $4 million moved from ’25, and another $1 million moved from ’26—so if you want to call it a raise, then you have to call it a pay cut on the back end. Teams do these things, generally, to avoid setting precedents that can haunt them with other players, adding new money to a deal without adding new years.
But it also requires coming back to the table the next year since the previous year’s “raise” is only a “raise” if the player is getting the money back the following year.
As it stands right now, Stafford is due $27 million in nonguaranteed cash for 2025. People around him think he’d like to keep playing for Sean McVay and stay in Los Angeles. Likewise, I think McVay would love to have him back. But that deal he signed at $40 million per year after winning the Super Bowl is now $20 million behind the top of the market, and his number for this year is less than half that. So if someone offers a haul of picks … we’ll see.
• Matt Eberflus’s words on Micah Parsons encapsulate his value—you can do a lot of different things with the Dallas Cowboys star. Former defensive coordinator Dan Quinn used him as a Swiss Army knife from 2021 to ’23. Mike Zimmer used him as more of a pure edge rusher last year to maximize his most valuable trait. Eberflus said this week he’s working through a plan for Parsons.
Bottom line: Parsons’s ability to play at an elite level on the line on one snap and off it the next is rare. As is the production Parsons has given the Cowboys through four seasons.
It’s why I think the Cowboys, like the Bengals with Chase last year, should’ve paid Parsons after three years. The price was only going to go up, and it has—and Parsons won’t be out of line asking for $40 million per year this offseason.
Will the Cowboys pay that? As we mentioned in Monday’s Takeaways, things haven’t been perfect between Parsons and the team. Some relationships are strained. But, to me, he’s too good a player, and too unique a player, to let that get in the way. Historically, pass rushers are a little different, and Parsons badly wants to be great, which is what’s most important.
Like I said Monday, he’s good enough where, if I’m another team and I’m sensing trouble, I’m coming in with a haul of picks and a big contract to try and pry him away.
• Love the Carolina Panthers bringing Andy Dalton back.
The 37-year-old is a great pro, and he and Bryce Young have been through a lot together. I think the health of a quarterback room is an important element in a young guy’s development, and by inking Dalton for the next two years, Carolina’s ensuring that for Young, who made big strides down the stretch last year.
I’m excited to see what the Panthers do to build around Young over the next few months, going into what’ll be a critical year for him—as the third year is for all young quarterbacks who haven’t yet nailed down their long-term place as the franchise guy for their drafting teams.
• David Shaw was formally announced as the Detroit Lions’ pass-game coordinator and I really like the move for Dan Campbell and his revamped staff.
It adds more play-calling experience to new offensive coordinator Johnny Morton’s group, which will help backstop the new coordinator, and new ideas to Detroit’s offense, with Shaw’s Jim Harbaugh–influenced sensibilities matching Campbell’s desires for a rugged offense.
It also doesn’t hurt that Shaw worked for the Denver Broncos last year, getting back in after 12 years running the program at his alma mater Stanford (and 17 consecutive years coaching in college).
• I wouldn’t take too much away from Justin Jefferson not taking sides in the Minnesota Vikings’ quarterback debate. He really liked playing with Kirk Cousins, and took a similar tact to that situation last year—knowing he was good enough to produce regardless, and having confidence that Kevin O’Connell and his staff would get a high level of play out of whoever is playing the position.
• And we’ll be back Monday with our annual combine preview, taking an overarching view of the 2025 NFL draft class. Can’t wait to dive in on that.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Why It Makes Sense for the Bengals to Franchise Tag Tee Higgins.
