The Bengals have tagged receiver Tee Higgins for the second straight year. The next question is whether they’ll make good on their stated intention to turn the tag into a long-term deal.
The thing about intentions is that they can, and often do, change. If someone makes the Bengals a suitable offer, will they decide to trade him?
It happens. Last year, the Chiefs tagged and traded cornerback L’Jarius Snead.
Trading Higgins would free up $26.16 million in cap space and, perhaps more importantly for the Bengals, in cold, hard cash. With receiver Ja’Marr Chase surely looking for a long-term deal with a new-money average at or in excess of $40 million per year, they need that money to keep the guy who won the receiving triple crown in 2025.
The Bengals rarely turn a franchise tag into an extension. (In the attached video, I said they’ve only ever done it with receiver Carl Pickens, who was cut after the first year of the deal. I was wr-wr-wr-mistaken. They extended running back Rudi Johnson after tagging him in 2005.) And, as explained in the video and earlier, the fact that Higgins can make $26.16 million in 2025 and then become a free agent makes it even more expensive to get him to trade in the bird in the hand.
While it’s legitimate and permissible to trade a tagged player, there’s a separate problem. Quarterback Joe Burrow expects the Bengals to find a way to keep Chase and Higgins and defensive end Trey Hendrickson. If they trade Higgins, they’ll have some explaining to do to their most important player.
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