Tee Higgins Asks Bengals for Trade
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00:00 Hi again everyone. Welcome in to Cincinnati Bengals Talk. I'm
00:03 James Rapinoe of allbengals.com. Make sure you hit
00:06 that subscribe button. Ring the bell. Why? For things like
00:09 this on Monday when T Higgins T Higgins' agent David
00:12 Molagueta says, hey, let's get T out of Cincinnati and I
00:16 wondered if this would be the case. The Bengals have T in a
00:20 place that isn't great because T Higgins has not produced like
00:24 these high-end wide receivers. The Jamar Chases, the Justin
00:27 Jeffersons, he wants to get paid and yet the Bengals know
00:31 over the next 2 years, they can pay him $47 million on two
00:34 franchise tags and they can just plan for that and so when
00:38 I see the reports out and literally every national media
00:41 outlet says, oh, T Higgins has requested a trade. The team
00:44 hasn't had long-term extension talks with him since March 2023
00:49 which I don't buy at all but it's coming from the agent.
00:55 David Molagueta is trying to get his client a new contract,
00:58 an extension elsewhere, and the Bengals dealt with this last
01:03 year with Jonah Williams. I think it's different because I
01:06 think the market for T is certainly different. The wide
01:09 receiver market is interesting and so to me, the Bengals can do
01:13 two things here. They cannot blink which they're not going to
01:16 blink. The Bengals don't blink in these type of situations and
01:19 they're not going to blink in this situation. So, they will
01:22 still prepare like T is on the roster. Now, that doesn't mean
01:28 that they won't entertain trades and that doesn't mean
01:31 that this won't drum up interest across the league. When
01:34 you look at the wide receiver market in the draft, yeah,
01:36 there's a lot of guys. There isn't a lot in free agency.
01:39 It's Calvin Ridley and it's Hollywood Brown and well, T
01:44 Higgins would be a huge, huge part of this and especially
01:47 with Michael Pittman Jr. also on the franchise tag, T Higgins
01:50 would clearly be the number one receiver on the market. So,
01:53 the Panthers want to trade for T Higgins. Alright, what are you
01:56 going to give up? I think that the Patriots are certainly in
02:01 the veteran wide receiver market. So, I think there are
02:03 suitors. Another team, the Jacksonville Jaguars. I will
02:06 say this. I think T Higgins would be interested in
02:08 reuniting with Trevor Lawrence and the part of this that's
02:12 really tough to navigate if you're the Bengals and T
02:15 Higgins' party is one, clearly, there's some animosity
02:18 between the two. Two, it's all of this is dependent on a
02:22 long-term extension with whatever club he goes to. So,
02:25 there's a lot in the air here and I think this is a power
02:29 play by Molligetta because he looked up and realized that the
02:33 Bengals could really be comfortable and I've said it
02:36 here. Spending 47 million over the next 2 years for T Higgins
02:40 and saying, alright, we'll just go year by year with you
02:42 because we know how much it's going to cost and I think the
02:46 guaranteed money that was asked for is more than that 47
02:49 million. So, this is the ugly side of it and I do wonder
02:53 what's going to happen and I think T Higgins, if he was all
02:58 in on staying, could stay. I also think he's making a
03:01 personal choice here to try to get a long-term extension at
03:04 25 years old and I totally get that too and so, this is
03:07 something that was always a possibility and unfortunately,
03:11 I do wonder what his market is given how deep it is in the
03:17 draft. Like, if you're the Patriots, do you give up the
03:19 thirty-fifth pick? If you're the Panthers, do you give up
03:21 the thirty-third pick? Okay, what if the Bengals want to
03:24 move up and that's what I would be trying to do if I'm the
03:28 Bengals. If I'm the Cincinnati Bengals today, I would say,
03:32 alright, T, well then, find a deal with one of these teams in
03:35 the top ten. That's what I want you to do because we want to
03:40 move up in this draft because if I can take T Higgins and
03:43 eighteen and maybe another pick and get to number seven with
03:47 the Titans and get to number three with the Patriots, I
03:51 would do it. Of course, I would do it. Get to number four with
03:54 the Cardinals. Of course, I would do it. The Giants,
03:58 whoever you want to throw out there, that's what I would try
04:01 to do. That's where I would start. Now, will teams start
04:04 calling? Of course, they will and they should. They should
04:06 call right now. They should try to get a deal done today
04:10 because there aren't many wide receivers out there and if
04:12 you're the Bengals, you do want to get something done sooner
04:14 rather than later so you can use that 21.8 million dollar
04:18 cap it. So, instead of blinking or not blinking because the
04:24 Bengals never blink, maybe they look at this and say, alright,
04:27 it's twenty-eight point, twenty-one point eight million
04:28 dollars against the cap. This could get ugly. Let's see
04:32 what's out there. Maybe they entertain it or maybe they
04:36 don't. I will say this. They are not going to get run over
04:39 by an offer. They are not going to blink and settle for a
04:42 third-round pick for T Higgins because he asked for a trade.
04:46 They're like, okay, well, we'll see what's out there. I think
04:49 that's the Bengals mindset. I think it will be the Bengals
04:51 mindset in a situation like this and the beauty of it is
04:55 we're going to have you covered. In season, it's win,
04:58 lose, or draw. Here, it's sign, trade, unable to sign, and
05:03 retain, whatever you want to call it. Free agency is here
05:06 and we have you covered every single step of the way on
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05:36 news breaks. So, for Andrew Fox Miller, I'm James Ruppin.
05:39 Thank you so much for watching Cincinnati Bengals Talk.
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