Duke Tobin didn’t hide the challenge associated with trying to re-sign both Cincinnati Bengals star receivers this offseason. Along with re-signing triple-crown winner Ja’Marr Chase, the Bengals will also try to re-sign fellow wideout Tee Higgins, who played last year under the franchise tag.
While it’ll be difficult, the Bengals general manager didn’t say that re-signing both players is impossible or off the table. He’s just telling it like it is.
“It’s going to be hard,” Tobin recently told Cincinnati.com. “We feel like we have the resources to do it, but it all depends on how the negotiation goes and whether they’re willing to accept wanting to come back at a number that makes sense for everybody.
“And you know what we do with Tee going forward, I’ve always been very upfront in my desire to have Tee Higgins on our team. I’ve never not been upfront about that, and that desire continues, but we have to be able to come together with his representation on what that means and what the right number is for his experience, for his play time, for his production. And let’s find something that works for everybody, because he is a guy that we want to have here, and hopefully that can come together, but we have other guys who are trying to take big bites of the apple in other areas, and we’re going to have to balance those as we go forward.”
Tobin indeed has a lengthy history of stating his desire to keep Higgins, who came to the Bengals the same year as star quarterback Joe Burrow and like Burrow has played an integral role in Cincinnati’s success over the past four years. During the 2023 NFL Scouting Combine, Tobin emphatically shot down the idea that the team may trade Higgins, who at that point was going into the final year of his rookie contract.
“Trading Tee Higgins is not on my mind,” Tobin said at the time. “They want a receiver, go find your own, you know? In my opinion, Tee Higgins is a good piece for the Cincinnati Bengals. The trade stuff is a little ridiculous right now.”
Higgins, Chase and Burrow have each made it clear that they want to continue playing together. Burrow, whose extension in 2023 made him the NFL’s highest-paid player, said after the 2024 season that he hopes that Cincinnati handles the upcoming contract talks with Chase and Higgins differently than previous ones.
“Whenever a great player leaves, you wish you could have found a way to keep him. You don’t want to make a living out of letting great players leave the building,” Burrow said. “I think that’s why you’ve got to do everything you can to get those deals done early.”
As Tobin alluded to, the Bengals could keep all three players, but it would require some sacrifice from all three parties in order to make that happen.
Starting with 2025, Burrow will accrue an annual cap hit that will start at over $46 million and is slated to reach almost $69 million by the final year of his deal (in 2029). Chase’s projected annual market value calls for him to make $33.5 million annually. Higgins’ projected market value is currently $25.4 million annually, although he could likely get more than that on the open market if a team sees him as a No. 1 receiver.
Yes, the Bengals can conceivably keep all three, but that could restrict them from re-signing other key players as well as signing top free agents. This would obviously put a bigger importance on the Bengals hitting on their draft picks, which has been touch and go over the past few years.
Tobin said that re-signing Chase is “a priority for us.” As far as Higgins’ future with the team, it appears that will largely come down to how much money is left for him after the Bengals take care of their other receiver, who shares the same agent as Higgins.
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