According to reports, the Cincinnati Bengals plan to use the franchise tag on WR Tee Higgins for the 2024 NFL season.
If that’s true, Higgins will become the 1st player who has been tagged in the offseason thus far. His contract will carry a value of roughly $21.8M and be fully guaranteed. Cincinnati and Higgins will then have until mid-July to work out a long term deal, otherwise the talented wideout will be set to play on the one year deal.
Originally a 2nd round draft pick out of Clemson, Higgins has spent the entirety of his NFL career with the Bengals. Limited to just 12 games in 2023 due to rib, ankle, and hamstring injuries, the 25 year old posted the worst statistical season of his 4 year career with only 656 yards receiving and 5 TDs.
Prior to that, Higgins had posted back to back 1,000+ yard seasons, and was a key factor in the Bengals reaching the Super Bowl back in 2021. When healthy, Higgins, Ja’Marr Chase and Joe Burrow form one of the more lethal aerial trios in the NFL.
However both Burrow and Higgins were hampered by injuries in 2023, leaving Chase to work with backup QB Jake Browning for the homestretch of the season. Despite a 5-3 start to the year, the Bengals dropped two of their final three contests to narrowly miss the playoffs.
With no long term deal in place, and salary cap concerns for the club, Higgins entered the offseason unsure of whether his time in Cincinnati had come to an end. Despite the fact that Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin told reporters he wanted to keep Higgins in orange and black for the long haul, there was no guarantee that the talented pass catcher would remain with the club.
Teams such as the Carolina Panthers, Kansas City Chiefs, and New England Patriots were previously linked to Higgins as potential landing spots this spring. However for now, the Bengals and Higgins representatives will turn their attention to working out a long term deal to keep him in the Queen City.
Given the recent announcement that the 2024 salary cap would be increasing by $30.6M, Cincinnati suddenly finds themselves in a better financial position than they were a few weeks prior. Which in turn could be good news for Higgins’ agents in negotiations.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: All-Pro Reels. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.