Bengals Uncertain About Retaining Jonah Williams, Want To Re-Sign Tee Higgins.

In his contract year, Tee Higgins was swiftly removed from trade rumors by Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin, who also stated that the team’s number-two wide receiver would not be available. Even though Higgins did not improve in 2023, should the Ja’Marr Chase sidekick be able to sign a free agent, he still has a chance to be among the best pass catchers available.

Regarding Higgins’s future with the team this season, Tobin is a little less certain. After completing his rookie contract, the former second-round pick will be able to sign free agents in March. Higgins is free to talk with other clubs if the Bengals do not have him franchise-tagged by March 5 or re-signed by March 11.

Losing Higgins has long been a possibility, as Chase will naturally be the team’s top focus at wide receiver and Joe Burrow is now the highest paid player in the NFL. The four-year starter is someone the Bengals would like to re-sign, though. Additionally, a rumor from January stated that the organization is ready to tag the 6-foot-4 pass catcher.

“We’ll see what happens this year,” Tobin stated, as reported by Kelsey Conway of the Cincinnati Enquirer. “I desire Tee Higgins’ return.” Tee Higgins’ return would be appreciated by all members of our team. Once more, there is only one pie, and we will have to decide how big a slice it takes and what else we are unable to accomplish as a result.

Higgins would cost roughly $21.7MM to retain on the tag after finishing an injury-plagued season with career-low numbers in receptions (42) and yards (656). A.J. Green was handcuffed by the Bengals in 2020. Conditions then, when Burrow was a rookie, are certainly different from those now. Currently leading the NFL in compensation, Burrow will eventually pass Chase as the highest-paid wide receiver in the league.

Chase can remain on his rookie deal through the 2025 season because of the fifth-year option. As was the case with Justin Jefferson in Minnesota, no team in the fifth-year option era has extended a first-round receiver with two years left on a rookie contract; this suggests that Cincinnati will have to negotiate an extension with Chase in his fifth year of eligibility.