Analyzing Tee Higgins Future With Cincinnati Bengals
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00:00 So according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, the Bengals will officially place the franchise
00:05 tag on wide receiver Tee Higgins.
00:07 This isn't a surprise and it's something that we expected, but he is the first player to
00:14 get tagged.
00:15 Now the Bengals haven't officially announced this news, but that could happen at any point
00:20 in the foreseeable future.
00:22 But what we do know, according to Ian Rapoport, is that the Bengals let Higgins' party know,
00:28 whether it's his agent, his entire side of things, let them know that he will be tagged.
00:33 What does it mean?
00:34 Well, it means Tee Higgins is about to make a lot of money in 2024.
00:38 Regardless of long-term extension talks, he is guaranteed $21.8 million.
00:44 The numbers came out on Friday ahead of the new league year and the salary cap, well,
00:51 it's higher than projected as well at $255.4 million for all 32 NFL teams, which makes
00:57 this salary cap hit much easier to swallow if you're the Bengals.
01:02 Because if they don't sign Tee Higgins to a long-term extension, and now that they're
01:05 tagging him, they'll have until July to do so, he won't become a free agent.
01:10 The Jaguars, the Browns, all these teams that were hoping Tee Higgins was going to hit free
01:14 agency, well, he's not going to.
01:17 So sorry about your luck.
01:19 But if you're the Bengals, you can still negotiate a long-term extension with him.
01:24 But if not, it's $21.8 million of cap space that you're using on Tee Higgins from the
01:30 jump before free agency begins, before you start to address right tack or defensive tack
01:34 or anything like that.
01:35 So looking at it, it would be ideal that the Bengals could find a way to get a long-term
01:42 extension done with a 25-year-old wide receiver.
01:44 With a wide receiver that, yeah, he missed some games this past year, but he's flashed
01:50 and not just flashed as a rookie, but over the past couple of years shown how dominant
01:55 he could be.
01:56 Even with Jamar Chase out, he showed that he could be a number one wide receiver and
02:00 he's been a 1A in this offense.
02:02 So I think the Bengals do want to keep him long-term and sign him to an extension.
02:07 That's something that we talked about in an earlier video on Friday afternoon, Tony Pauline's
02:12 report about the Bengals hoping to get a long-term deal done.
02:16 I think the fact that they franchise tagged him now, that they let his people know now
02:20 that they're going to tag him shows their desire to speed this process up and say, "All
02:27 right, we're definitely tagging you.
02:29 Now let's work on a long-term deal.
02:30 You're not going to get the free agency.
02:32 Let's cut the crap."
02:33 You know, the negotiating tactics or anything like that.
02:37 By the way, I'm not saying that Higgins' people are doing something crazy.
02:41 They just want a long-term deal for their client.
02:44 But if you're the Bengals, the only reason you do this now and you let Higgins know now
02:48 ahead of the combine is so you can focus on a long-term deal.
02:51 Because now the rest of the league knows it.
02:53 And so he's tagged.
02:55 I'm sure there will be teams that reach out and say, "Hey, can we trade for tag T Higgins?"
03:00 I think the Bengals want to keep him long-term.
03:02 So if there was a time to agree to a trade, it would be before free agency begins, before
03:06 the new league year begins.