The ongoing drama between the Cincinnati Bengals and wide receiver Tee Higgins was temporarily tabled this week when the team officially used the franchise tag on Higgins, locking him in for another year of service if a long-term deal is not reached by this summer.
The move comes as the Bengals scramble to keep their core of stars together, with fellow standouts Ja’Marr Chase and Trey Hendrickson also due massive extensions sooner rather than later.
Given the amount of money Cincinnati is set to pay Chase—general manager Duke Tobin said he was set to become the highest-paid non-quarterback in the league—it’s possible that the Bengals are hesitant to hand out another big-money deal to Higgins for him to essentially serve as their WR2.
With the Bengals and Higgins still apparently far apart on a deal, it should come as no surprise that other teams looking to build out their wide receivers room are inquiring about a potential trade. According to Dianna Russini at The Athletic, multiple teams have reached out to Cincinnati to see if Higgins is available, but for now, the Bengals insist he’s not on the table to be dealt.
While the public reason for the Bengals’ lack of interest in a deal is that they are still looking to work out a long-term agreement with Higgins, as Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk notes, the optics may be as important to the Bengals as their actual plans for Higgins.
“The Bengals need to placate quarterback Joe Burrow,” Florio wrote on Thursday. “Even if they can’t, and ultimately won’t, make Higgins an offer he won’t refuse, the Bengals need Burrow to think they tried everything they could to get it done. They need Burrow to believe that, at the end of the day, Higgins is the one who was being unreasonable.”
Throughout the offseason, Burrow has made clear his desire to run it back with Chase, Higgins, and Hendrickson all on the roster. With Burrow already paid, and the other three now due for big contracts, the Bengals organization might be looking at their cap situation and thinking, “that’s a pretty tough trick to pull off, Joe.”
So for now, the Bengals are going to keep Higgins off of the trading block, and at least as a formality continue working towards a long-term deal. That said, Higgins has already been pretty dismissive while addressing the Bengals’ purported efforts to negotiate.
As free agency plays out and we move closer to the draft, it’s possible that Cincinnati changes their tune—having been unable to come to a long-term agreement with Higgins, but at least showing Burrow that they tried to find a middle ground—and looks to find a trade partner. It’s also still extremely possible that the two sides do come to mutually agreeable terms, and Higgins remains a Bengal.
With drama like this, it’s no surprise that the NFL is finding it hard to get another team to sign up for an offseason Hard Knocks.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Why the Bengals Are Turning Down Trade Offers for Tee Higgins Amid Contract Standoff.
