Market for $22 million Bengals star seeking trade set by blockbuster deal.
The Cincinnati Bengals now just need to choose whether to cash in on the market for elite wide receivers in the NFL or stay put.
On April 3, the Buffalo Bills traded a 2025 second-round selection to the Houston Texans in exchange for NFL All-Pro wide receiver Stefon Diggs, a 2024 sixth-round selection, and a 2025 fifth-round selection.
For the 2024 season, Tee Higgins, a fifth-year player, will receive a franchise tag from the Bengals worth about $22 million. Higgins requested a trade and was looking for a long-term contract with the team.
According to Kelsey Conway of The Cincinnati Enquirer, “the Bengals probably believe Higgins is worth no less than a first-round pick if the Bills received a second-round pick for a 30-year-old wide receiver.” “Higgins has already had two seasons with 1,000 yards and is only 25 years old.”
One of the best young wide receivers in the NFL is Tee Higgins.
Amidst injuries, Higgins had a career-low 42 receptions for 656 yards and 5 touchdowns in 12 games at the end of the 2023 season.
For Higgins, who the Bengals selected with the first selection of the second round of the 2020 NFL draft out of Clemson, where he assisted in leading the Tigers to a CFP national championship in 2018, it ended a run of two seasons in a row with over 1,000 receiving yards.
In 2021, Higgins was at the top of his game as he guided the Bengals to the AFC title. In the regular season, he caught 74 passes for a career-high 1,091 receiving yards. In the postseason, he was even more effective, catching 18 passes for 309 yards and two touchdowns.
Higgins had four receptions for 100 yards and two touchdowns in Super Bowl LVI, a 23-20 loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
Bengals Cannot Pay to Keep Every Up-and-Coming Star
Following the selection of two of the best wide receivers in the game in 2020 in Higgins and 2021 in NFL All-Pro and three-time Pro Bowler Ja’Marr Chase, the Bengals are beginning to seem like victims of their own success.
While Chase’s deal is expected to be in the neighborhood of Tyreek Hill’s four-year, $120 million contract extension with $72 million in guaranteed money signed in 2022, Chase has been open about wanting to be among the highest-paid wide receivers in the NFL and not wanting to sign until Minnesota Vikings superstar Justin Jefferson sets the market.
“Until Jefferson (signs), I have no idea what’s going to happen,” Chase said to ESPN in December 2023. “I require additional data from him. That was Tyreek Hill’s doing. However, he will also get me there.
Add to it quarterback Joe Burrow’s historic five-year, $275 million contract, which he inked prior to the 2023 campaign. and the Bengals are beginning to experience financial hardship.
The Bengals have turned down trade requests for Higgins thus far and anticipate having him play this season.
Conway stated, “Higgins gives Cincinnati’s front office and coaching staff the best chance to make another Super Bowl run in the upcoming season.”
