Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins (5) prepares to take the field for the first quarter of the NFL Week 17 game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Denver Broncos at Paycor Stadium in downtown Cincinnati on Saturday, Dec. 28, 2024.

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Cincinnati Bengals Pulling Out All Stops To Retain Tee Higgins

Bengals doing all they can to keep Higgins

Currently, the Cincinnati Bengals have a lot on their mind with multiple key players looking for new contracts. One such player who played the 2024 season on the team’s franchise tag is wide receiver Tee Higgins. He has been an integral part of the Bengals’ offense alongside Ja’Marr Chase forming a reliable duo for quarterback Joe Burrow to work with.

Keeping all the stars on the team including Trey Hendrickson, Ja’Marr Chase, and Tee Higgins is going to be a massive challenge for Cincinnati this year, especially given that Burrow’s cap hit stands at a staggering $46.3 million for the upcoming season. In the interest of keeping this group together, Burrow has expressed his readiness to restructure his own contract.

That, however, will depend on how the Bengals administration goes about tackling this big problem. As for Higgins, the Bengals have a couple of options they can consider.

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Possible Options For Retaining Higgins

According to NFL insider, Tom Pelissero, the Bengals are once again trying to get a long-term deal done which of course would be the ideal scenario. Being able to retain Higgins would also keep quarterback Joe Burrow happy.

However, if they are unable to get a deal done with Higgins, the Bengals are considering to franchise tag him for the second time in as many years. Cincinnati still has until March 04 to try and get a deal done with their receiver before the 15-day window for the franchise tag closes. If the Bengals do end up going down the tag road yet again, they will have time until July 15 to work out a deal.

Last year, Higgins played on a one-year tag that earned him around $21.8 million. This time, though, a second tag would earn him in the region of $26 million which is an increase of 120% from last year. Ideally, though, a receiver of Higgins’ caliber could potentially earn upwards of $30 million per year in free agency.

Higgins 2024 Season

Cincinnati will do well to keep Higgins on the roster. Despite playing as the WR2 on the team behind Chase, Higgins has the potential to be the main receiver on most other teams. Although he missed the first couple of games of the 2024 season due to injury, Higgins still had decent output in the year.

In the 12 games he played in with 9 starts, Higgins managed 73 receptions on 109 targets for 911 receiving yards, and a career high 10 touchdowns.

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Tee Higgins

Devavrat Kulkarni

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I am a content writer for the NFL team, and joined The Playoffs after working with Sportskeeda and NFL Analysis as an NFL writer. After starting my professional career as a French-to-English translator, working as a content writer is a new adventure for me. I started out in the sports media field for two main reasons: my love for sports in general, especially the NFL, NBA, and Tennis, as well as my passion for writing. The best part of this job is that I get to write a variety of pieces with the freedom to explore content from various angles. It also enables me to stay up to date with the sporting world, which otherwise can be difficult to do in the day-to-day grind. In a world full of chaos, sports unite and entertain like nothing else!