The trade market has been set for top-flight wide receivers in the NFL, and now the Cincinnati Bengals just have to decide if they want to cash in or stay put.
The Buffalo Bills shipped NFL All-Pro wide receiver Stefon Diggs, a 2024 sixth-round pick and a 2025 fifth-round pick to the Houston Texans on April 3 in exchange for a 2025 second-round pick.
The Bengals have placed the franchise tag on fifth-year Tee Higgins for the 2024 season, which would pay him approximately $22 million. Higgins was seeking a long-term deal with the team and asked for a trade.
“If the Bills received a second-round pick for a 30-year-old wide receiver, the Bengals likely believe Higgins is worth no less than a first-round pick,” wrote The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Kelsey Conway. “Higgins is only 25 years old and has recorded two 1,000-yard seasons.”
Tee Higgins is One of NFL’s Best Young Wide Receivers
Higgins battled injuries in 2023 and finished the season with career lows of 42 receptions for 656 yards and 5 touchdowns in 12 games.
It broke a streak of two consecutive seasons with over 1,000 receiving yards for Higgins, who the Bengals selected with the first pick of the second round in the 2020 NFL draft out of Clemson, where he helped lead the Tigers to a CFP national championship in 2018.
Higgins was at his best in 2021 on the way to leading the Bengals to an AFC championship. He had 74 receptions for a career-high 1,091 receiving yards in the regular season and was at his best in the playoffs with 18 receptions for 309 yards and 2 touchdowns.
In a 23-20 loss to the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LVI, Higgins had 4 receptions for 100 yards and 2 touchdowns.
TEE HIGGINS 75-YARD TOUCHDOWN 🤯
📹 @NFL | #SuperBowl
Bengals Can’t Afford to Keep All of Young Superstars
The Bengals are starting to become victims of their own success after drafting two of the game’s elite wide receivers with Higgins in 2020 and three-time Pro Bowler and NFL All-Pro Ja’Marr Chase in 2021.
Chase has been open about wanting to be one of the highest-paid wide receivers in the NFL and not wanting to sign until Minnesota Vikings superstar Justin Jefferson sets the market, although Chase’s deal will likely be in the neighborhood of the four-year, $120 million contract extension with $72 million in guaranteed money signed by Tyreek Hill in 2022.
“I don’t know nothing about what’s going to happen yet until Jefferson (signs),” Chase told ESPN in December 2023. “I need to see more numbers from him. Tyreek Hill got us there. But he’s going to get me there, too.”
Add in the record-breaking, five-year, $275 million contract signed by quarterback Joe Burrow before the 2023 season … and the Bengals are starting to feel the economic pinch.
The Bengals expect Higgins to play this year and have so far refused any trade requests.
“Cincinnati’s front office and coaching staff believe Higgins gives them the best chance to make another Super Bowl run in the upcoming season,” wrote Conway.
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Blockbuster Deal Sets Market for $22 Million Bengals Star Wanting Trade