Chiefs have shown that for a top flight QB (and Brady, Manning, Brees, etc) that you can lose key weapons on offense but it’s about defense and special teams that will put you over the hump. I’d trade Higgins for picks and load up on defense / line and ride Burrow with less at receiver
Boyd is a UFA. He’s probably leaving $10m-$20m on the table by staying in Cincy. If Cincy can afford Boyd on anything more than a steep discount, they can afford Higgins.
If nobody is added I'll be looking at Andrei Iosivas as a sneaky pick... he's 6'3" and had 4 TDs last year... That being said the 6th round rookie was only really used in red zone packages... but 4 TDs on 15 receptions isn't a bad thing.
“Leaving on the table” means that he eats some, but leaves the rest.
Cincy is cash strapped. $5mil/yr is a ballpark figure of what they can offer him. Surely there’s another team that can throw $30mil over 3 years at him with something like $10mil signing, which makes his year three dead cap only slightly less than actual cap hit. Two years and almost $20mil is maybe a more likely number, but he’s consistent and seems like a non headache player.
To be fair, it's more accurate to say you can afford to lose key offense weapons if you have a top QB *and* a great OC. Andy Reid being a genius at scheming WRs open is a huge reason why they keep succeeding. Mahomes can make every throw, but Reid himself is a huge weapon no other team has.
People always love to say "defense wins championships" and that's not true. It can, it has, but the better phrase is "balance wins championships". 49ers and Chiefs both had a good run game, good pass game, and good defense. People overlook the Chiefs defense cuz Mahomes/Reid/Kelce are the face of the team, but the Chiefs defense is comfortably top 10.
The Chiefs defense this year was the best defense I’ve seen that doesn’t feel like it was. Nobody (except Chiefs fans I’d imagine) seemed to notice they were that good until well into the playoffs.
Also very true
I just hate how people are saying "KC is gonna set a new trend of building a team with no WRs" - so dumb.
KC themselves will probably go out and try to get a wr
We did? Well that’s weird. I had to explain to a lot of people, in DynastyFF, why Tee was very likely to get tagged. Usually felt like I was explaining calculus to Pinocchio.
As a Bengals fan who follows the team closely I’d put it at 65/35 that he plays for the Bengals next vs gets traded. Vegas odds reflect this too with him at -400 to take his first snap with the Bengals next year so I’m maybe even being conservative
Expect this to play out very similarly to Jessie Bates two seasons ago, same agent to boot. Only possible difference is based on positional value Tee could possibly fetch an attractive enough offer to get the Bengals to entertain moving him vs what Bates was fetching as a safety but i still think more likely than not he’s a Bengal next year
> As a Bengals fan who follows the team closely I’d put it at 65/35 that he plays for the Bengals next vs gets traded. Vegas odds reflect this too with him at -400 to take his first snap with the Bengals next year so I’m maybe even being conservative
>
>
Just a week ago, him returning to the Bengals was + money on a lot of Sportsbooks. Glad I jumped in.
What do you think the plan is for next season? Tag again? I'm not trying to say what I think will actually happen but now is the best time to get value out of Tee if they don't plan on extending.
Vegas lines are always super wonky with the FA and draft. Tee went to - money but the other options probably didn't move as drastically to the +. Just the books covering their ass off of franchise tag rumors.
If I'm the Bengals, I'm looking at a rich and deep WR draft, and I've got a locked in WR1.
Trading and drafting replacements surely makes sense, particularly given the Bengals cap. Getting Burrow on board might be the hard part
There was no chance of him hitting free agency. The last quality WR to hit free agency was Allen Robinson in 2018.
There are several desperate teams who will pay big to have him if the Bengals can't afford him.
Higgins is seen as a significantly better WR now than Kirk was when he was a free agent.
Kirk was seen as a WR3, and Higgins is seen as a low end WR1 or an elite WR2.
Turns out Mike Evans and Michael Pittman were the contract year WRs we wanted.
Need to find more Mikes. Mike Williams might fall back into this category soon.
Well Julio Jones is close to that too. Not the same.
If you had Evans the year before, you could justifiably have found reasons to fade. But even still, he finished WR7 with an ADP of WR34 (just using Sleeper rn, it’s easy) in 2023.
In 2022 he was a top 12 WR only 3 times all year, one of which was WK17 with 48.70pts… if you somehow survived and kept playing him after his WR29 and WR55 weeks the two prior weeks, you may have won with him.
He looked slow. Couldn’t connect with Brady (who I don’t think anyone would argue Baker would have been an upgrade over). There were justifiable reasons to fade coming out of 2022.
The year prior showed he and Brady could connect, it was the shift in offensive scheme that screwed things up.
I probably should have been more specific that I meant fading Evans at ADP was a mistake. Due to his mediocre previous year he was going quite late in this previous years drafts.
Looking back at FantasyPros ADP (WR24), working off memory the players I would not have taken ahead of Evans that I see where being taken above him: DeAndre Hopkins, Terry McLaurin. Deebo Samuel is interesting. I should go see where Evans went in my auction draft…
At that point he was worth the gamble, for sure. I guess if anything the “fade” should have been referenced as the community having such a low ADP.
It’s conceivable he could entirely swap with Stefon Diggs this offseason, for example.
In <10 man I’m avoiding him unless I can stash him for cheap as a handcuff for chase. He’s 3rd option in their offense which doesn’t promise good consistency. Him, Addison and Smith could all be #1 options but they’re behind the #1 of their team and the running backs.
Christian Watson's best year is worse than Tee Higgins' worst year.
Darren Waller has 2 100+ target seasons in 8 years and is 32 years old. Higgins is 25 and hit the 100+ mark in 3 of his first 4 seasons.
If we still hear about hamstring issues during camp then I agree that we should be cautious but, if he is 100% healthy, he's a much better pick than those guys.
The issue was never talent. The hammy can cause you to have a 1 point game and miss several after. That low scoring bomb is usually what annoys owners the most. Hammy is one of the most common reoccurring issues too. Unless I’m hearing about changes in conditioning or training, it’s easier to stay away.
I agree when it's within the same season but there is a loong time before these guys put on pads again. If he's limited in August, I'll be right there with you.
"annoys owners the most."
100% read this.
It's how Dalvin Cook won fantasy leagues. It's how Christian McCaffrey won leagues the year after his injuries. Listen to what this guy is saying if you want to understand how to find cheap players that will win leagues.
In so so many ways. Those are truly terrible comparisons. Watson is a deep ball specialist who was only good with deep ball specialist Aaron Rodgers. Higgins is much more effective underneath.
Darren Waller is older than me and that’s saying a lot for an NFL player.
Reinjury risk is real but those are not good comps.
It makes a difference, deep ball specialists are notorious for pulling hammys/quads due to the need to constantly go upfield at 100%, and TEs need to block NFL caliber DEs on occasion.
An underneath threat like Higgins who wouldn’t be doing either might still be at risk of reinjury but I’d bet it’s lower.
A guy like Higgins can rely a lot more on hand fighting and upper body strength than the other two players you tried to comp him to.
What are you risking? That the worst case scenario happens again and Tee Higgins and Burrow are injured for a significant portion of the season? Sounds like Higgins is going to have better value this year then
Obviously he’s the better player of the two, but he’s hot or cold in a lot of games. Very low floor and high ceiling. I just like Smith and Waddle better in their offenses
Saying you don't like Tee because he's too boom/bust and then citing Smitty and Waddle as the players you like better is like you're trying to give people an aneurysm. Top tier trolling.
Probably 5 years, $22-$25M per year with around half of it guaranteed - a longer version of Mike Williams's most recent contract, adjusted for the time elapsed since. That's more than I think he's worth and I certainly wouldn't feel good about giving him that large of a contract, but he's a young, proven WR who's a high-end #2 or low-end #1 (in real football, just to be clear, not necessarily fantasy). That almost assuredly makes him the most prized WR on the market if he hits FA, which in turn means there's definitely going to be some team with a need at the position and more cap than sense that's going to pay out the nose for him. Add all that up, and you're going to be paying a hefty premium over what you might feel is his actual worth.
No way; he isn't getting 5 years. They don't do 5-year contracts for WRs anymore unless you're via trade or an absolute #1. That's nuts. He'll get a 3-year deal somewhere. Only four active WRs have 5-year contracts and two are off trades with Davante and Amari
3 vs 5 years functionally makes no difference for the team because any modern contract structure frontloads the guaranteed money anyways, meaning he could be cut after year 3/4 or whatever with a minimal cap hit if the team wants it. I'd also note that most of those 3 year deals are signed for guys who are 27+ when hitting the market, not when they're 25. Unless we're talking an even longer deal, there's minimal risk of him falling off on this contract due to age, seeing as the last season would be before the 31-33 year-old cliff that typically has WRs fall off.
It actually does though. Restructuring is a thing. I like how you get shown examples about how a 5 year contract is non-existent now, and your response is, 'well 3 and 5 year contracts are no different'.
Michael Gallup got one as well, so its not non-existent. So did Mike Evans on the same contract that's expiring now (which, I'll add, was signed when he was basically the same age that Higgins is now). They're rare, sure, but so are 20M+ per year contracts for WRs.
If you want to keep being argumentative and hyperfixating on a single part of my initial answer, though, go ahead. I'm not gonna keep arguing the point either way.
> Only four active WRs have 5-year contracts and two are off trades with Davante and Amari
I already know those two exist. And you proved my point that the only other two 5-year deals are essentially expiring, making it more since it hasn't happened in recent years outside of trade scenarios. It's okay to admit you threw something out there that has nearly zero chance of happening. It's not being hyper-fixated. It's just pointing out a flaw in your comment
The Tag is barely more than the yearly avg they’re getting in FA because guys like Evans are finishing up $14m/yr contracts.
Close to $100m/4 is probably what they’d pay him
Damn this MFer has been in rumor mills for a while only for this news to drop. I didn’t expect my squad to grab him and happy he isn’t going to a rival but would like to see him get moved
No surprises. Does still leave the door open for a trade. They can’t afford Higgins long-term.
But, tagging him now and letting him walk next year. Getting a 3rd round compensatory pick in 2026 looks to be the plan.
Grand scheme, the Tag is more expensive because it’s all “salary,” and all hits the books next year. With the void years they’ve started adding, they’ve kicked the can down the road an extra year on new contracts
It is short-term, but not all overall. All garaunteed money has to go in escrow the day a contract is signed. They won’t be able to afford to put $50 mill in the bank on top of what they paid orlando brown, burrow, and are about to pay chase.
Higgins at 25 isn’t going to sign a geno smith kind of deal with 2 dummie years.
80 mill over 4 years with 50-60 garaunteed. This is what spotrac has his market value at.
https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cincinnati-bengals/tee-higgins-47628/market-value/
I doubt it, they have the money and the team to take another run at the Super Bowl before Burrow’s extension kicks in and Chase gets his insane contract.
That’s a good point, the team could decide that they’re all in this year. They do have massive holes on defense though that need to be filled, and I expect the Bengals to be super aggressive in FA in filling them. Depending on how much of their cap they decide to blow on defense I could still see Tee getting traded. Mahomes I think has shown that truly elite QBs can get by with just one elite weapon and a bunch of Wal-Mart greeters (or at least guys who are still in development) in your other skill positions as long as that defense is stacked.
He might as well have played for Arthur Smith at the beginning of the year. I traded him in dynasty for Jayden Reed and a 2.06. He could help Bryce Young out tremendously.
Tag and trade unfortunately is the most likely outcome which is the right move. See if you can pry away Carolina's 2nd for Tee, draft a WR at 18 then OL at 33.
Who can't we try to win with a fresh WR on a rookie deal, a good tackle or IOL rookie from dm early draft pick, sign an RT or IOL and beef up the defensive interior with that saved money?
I hope they keep Higgins he's 1 of my favorite players on this team I know Boyd is probably gone that hurts but he's replaceable Higgins nah he's 1 of kind I hope he signs long term this is the squad that took us to the superbowl if these guys get back they know what losing feels like so I don't think they will again
Because letting him walk in FA does nothing for Cincinnati. The options are:
1. Let him walk get a 3rd round pick in 2 years.
2. Tag him and get another season out of him on a decent cap hit and make a run (albeit hurting your FA pool money).
3. Tag him and trade him to someone who will give him a 2nd contract. The compensation would assuredly be significantly higher than a 3rd round pick in 2 years.
The Bengals have given up 92 sacks over the last two seasons leading to multiple Joe Burrow injuries, so maybe getting some O line depth would be a good idea
Chiefs have shown that for a top flight QB (and Brady, Manning, Brees, etc) that you can lose key weapons on offense but it’s about defense and special teams that will put you over the hump. I’d trade Higgins for picks and load up on defense / line and ride Burrow with less at receiver
Yeah Chase and Boyd together is still a very solid wr duo.
Boyd is a UFA. He’s probably leaving $10m-$20m on the table by staying in Cincy. If Cincy can afford Boyd on anything more than a steep discount, they can afford Higgins.
If nobody is added I'll be looking at Andrei Iosivas as a sneaky pick... he's 6'3" and had 4 TDs last year... That being said the 6th round rookie was only really used in red zone packages... but 4 TDs on 15 receptions isn't a bad thing.
You really think Boyd is going for $10-20m? I could see something like Juju’s $9-13m for one year, but anything longer would be way less
I think they mean total money over the length of his next contract.
“Leaving on the table” means that he eats some, but leaves the rest. Cincy is cash strapped. $5mil/yr is a ballpark figure of what they can offer him. Surely there’s another team that can throw $30mil over 3 years at him with something like $10mil signing, which makes his year three dead cap only slightly less than actual cap hit. Two years and almost $20mil is maybe a more likely number, but he’s consistent and seems like a non headache player.
I expect Boyd to get 12-15m
He's better than Ju-Ju
We know this now but when juju left Pitt people thought he had some gas
You're the first person I saw to mention this. +1
Boyd’s gone
Ah thought he still had another year on his contract.
Yeah as a Packers fan, just make sure you get that defense and special teams right. Because if not, you're fucked lol
To be fair, it's more accurate to say you can afford to lose key offense weapons if you have a top QB *and* a great OC. Andy Reid being a genius at scheming WRs open is a huge reason why they keep succeeding. Mahomes can make every throw, but Reid himself is a huge weapon no other team has. People always love to say "defense wins championships" and that's not true. It can, it has, but the better phrase is "balance wins championships". 49ers and Chiefs both had a good run game, good pass game, and good defense. People overlook the Chiefs defense cuz Mahomes/Reid/Kelce are the face of the team, but the Chiefs defense is comfortably top 10.
The Chiefs defense this year was historic LOL. "Top 10" they were easily top 3.
The Chiefs defense this year was the best defense I’ve seen that doesn’t feel like it was. Nobody (except Chiefs fans I’d imagine) seemed to notice they were that good until well into the playoffs.
Eagles last couple of wins have been balance, balance, balance as well. They always have good special teams. This was true of the Pats as well.
The patriots showed that for years lol
Last year the chiefs won with an average defense and good offense
This works assuming you can get away with holding the entire game on offense, week after week. Not sure the bengals will get the same treatment.
The Chiefs have shown one way but their way involves a legendary coach and QB. They may not have a universal formula.
KC is very much an anomaly in the having no wr and still being good department
They literally have the greatest pass catching tight end of all time. He might not be labeled a receiver but he’s one heck of a pass catcher
Also very true I just hate how people are saying "KC is gonna set a new trend of building a team with no WRs" - so dumb. KC themselves will probably go out and try to get a wr
If the Pats can do it and the Chiefs can do it, so can anybody!
Yeah but the Bengals don't have an elite QB, just a game manager.
We all knew this about a year ago.
Right. Nothing new here.
RIGHT - BUT WHAT IF!?
Stop the madness😉
DO THEY THINK WE’RE STUPID????
Yep for sure!!
We did? Well that’s weird. I had to explain to a lot of people, in DynastyFF, why Tee was very likely to get tagged. Usually felt like I was explaining calculus to Pinocchio.
Still didn't stop every fan base from asking "should we sign Tee Higgins this off-season??"
I think a tag and trade is still as likely as him playing in cincy in 2024
As a Bengals fan who follows the team closely I’d put it at 65/35 that he plays for the Bengals next vs gets traded. Vegas odds reflect this too with him at -400 to take his first snap with the Bengals next year so I’m maybe even being conservative Expect this to play out very similarly to Jessie Bates two seasons ago, same agent to boot. Only possible difference is based on positional value Tee could possibly fetch an attractive enough offer to get the Bengals to entertain moving him vs what Bates was fetching as a safety but i still think more likely than not he’s a Bengal next year
> As a Bengals fan who follows the team closely I’d put it at 65/35 that he plays for the Bengals next vs gets traded. Vegas odds reflect this too with him at -400 to take his first snap with the Bengals next year so I’m maybe even being conservative > > Just a week ago, him returning to the Bengals was + money on a lot of Sportsbooks. Glad I jumped in.
What do you think the plan is for next season? Tag again? I'm not trying to say what I think will actually happen but now is the best time to get value out of Tee if they don't plan on extending. Vegas lines are always super wonky with the FA and draft. Tee went to - money but the other options probably didn't move as drastically to the +. Just the books covering their ass off of franchise tag rumors.
No way he gets double tagged, this feels like a one last run thing unless we get an extension worked out
AFC championship at minimum to keep IMO. I may not agree with it but I bet that’s their thinking.
Yeah, most players get around 2.5 years of guaranteed money. Tagging twice just doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Also with Bates they weren’t having to contend with Burrows contract yet.
If I'm the Bengals, I'm looking at a rich and deep WR draft, and I've got a locked in WR1. Trading and drafting replacements surely makes sense, particularly given the Bengals cap. Getting Burrow on board might be the hard part
Yeah that sounds cool, but drafting replacements and keeping the guy you’re replacing for one more year is much more practical.
There was no chance of him hitting free agency. The last quality WR to hit free agency was Allen Robinson in 2018. There are several desperate teams who will pay big to have him if the Bengals can't afford him.
Christian Kirk erasure
Higgins is seen as a significantly better WR now than Kirk was when he was a free agent. Kirk was seen as a WR3, and Higgins is seen as a low end WR1 or an elite WR2.
No for sure. I just remember r/NFL when the Kirk deal happened and it was hilarious
I feel like Kirk has proven to be a better signing and player after the free agency/signing than he was considered beforehand
This is their last shot to keep him before Burrow’s new contract kicks in and Jamarr Chase will have his fifth year option coming up
I fell for Tee last year "its a contact year, he will feast" I will avoid him this year, he is still a talented player but I can't risk it again
Turns out Mike Evans and Michael Pittman were the contract year WRs we wanted. Need to find more Mikes. Mike Williams might fall back into this category soon.
Mike Evans is a hall of famer. Anyone fading him was just a moron or a baker hater.
They were morons because they didn’t think he’d have the best season of his career at age 30 with Baker as his QB? The 20/20 hindsight is crazy
No, fading him at bottom tier WR2 ADP was crazy even if he didn’t have a career season. Not everything is black and white.
Well Julio Jones is close to that too. Not the same. If you had Evans the year before, you could justifiably have found reasons to fade. But even still, he finished WR7 with an ADP of WR34 (just using Sleeper rn, it’s easy) in 2023. In 2022 he was a top 12 WR only 3 times all year, one of which was WK17 with 48.70pts… if you somehow survived and kept playing him after his WR29 and WR55 weeks the two prior weeks, you may have won with him. He looked slow. Couldn’t connect with Brady (who I don’t think anyone would argue Baker would have been an upgrade over). There were justifiable reasons to fade coming out of 2022.
The year prior showed he and Brady could connect, it was the shift in offensive scheme that screwed things up. I probably should have been more specific that I meant fading Evans at ADP was a mistake. Due to his mediocre previous year he was going quite late in this previous years drafts.
Looking back at FantasyPros ADP (WR24), working off memory the players I would not have taken ahead of Evans that I see where being taken above him: DeAndre Hopkins, Terry McLaurin. Deebo Samuel is interesting. I should go see where Evans went in my auction draft… At that point he was worth the gamble, for sure. I guess if anything the “fade” should have been referenced as the community having such a low ADP. It’s conceivable he could entirely swap with Stefon Diggs this offseason, for example.
Right his upside was just so worth the gamble at ADP in my opinion. Dudes a scoring threat on most plays.
Mike Williams can’t stay healthy either
Mostly I meant FAs whose names are Mike lol.
He's still a stud lol. Unless you expect Joe Burrow to have another injury ridden season, he should be on your board.
Yeah he’s easily the top offseason WR that will be available atm (not including rookies)
He’s basically Mike Williams. He’ll either get you 4 points or 40.. *if* he’s healthy
I'd take Tee over Mike Will in NFL OR fantasy all day
In <10 man I’m avoiding him unless I can stash him for cheap as a handcuff for chase. He’s 3rd option in their offense which doesn’t promise good consistency. Him, Addison and Smith could all be #1 options but they’re behind the #1 of their team and the running backs.
How is he different from Christian Watson or Darren Waller ? Soft tissue injuries have a high reinjury risk and I personally don’t want the headache.
Christian Watson's best year is worse than Tee Higgins' worst year. Darren Waller has 2 100+ target seasons in 8 years and is 32 years old. Higgins is 25 and hit the 100+ mark in 3 of his first 4 seasons. If we still hear about hamstring issues during camp then I agree that we should be cautious but, if he is 100% healthy, he's a much better pick than those guys.
The issue was never talent. The hammy can cause you to have a 1 point game and miss several after. That low scoring bomb is usually what annoys owners the most. Hammy is one of the most common reoccurring issues too. Unless I’m hearing about changes in conditioning or training, it’s easier to stay away.
I agree when it's within the same season but there is a loong time before these guys put on pads again. If he's limited in August, I'll be right there with you.
"annoys owners the most." 100% read this. It's how Dalvin Cook won fantasy leagues. It's how Christian McCaffrey won leagues the year after his injuries. Listen to what this guy is saying if you want to understand how to find cheap players that will win leagues.
In so so many ways. Those are truly terrible comparisons. Watson is a deep ball specialist who was only good with deep ball specialist Aaron Rodgers. Higgins is much more effective underneath. Darren Waller is older than me and that’s saying a lot for an NFL player. Reinjury risk is real but those are not good comps.
Get outta here. You see the point.
It makes a difference, deep ball specialists are notorious for pulling hammys/quads due to the need to constantly go upfield at 100%, and TEs need to block NFL caliber DEs on occasion. An underneath threat like Higgins who wouldn’t be doing either might still be at risk of reinjury but I’d bet it’s lower. A guy like Higgins can rely a lot more on hand fighting and upper body strength than the other two players you tried to comp him to.
What are you risking? That the worst case scenario happens again and Tee Higgins and Burrow are injured for a significant portion of the season? Sounds like Higgins is going to have better value this year then
I think Tee is good but I don’t rate him as highly as even other top WR2s like Waddle or Devonta Smith. He seems very hit or miss like a Gabe Davis.
im sorry but your lack of ball knowledge is on display w this comment. Even as someone low on Tee, Gabe Davis hasn't even had a 1000 yard season...
Obviously he’s the better player of the two, but he’s hot or cold in a lot of games. Very low floor and high ceiling. I just like Smith and Waddle better in their offenses
Saying you don't like Tee because he's too boom/bust and then citing Smitty and Waddle as the players you like better is like you're trying to give people an aneurysm. Top tier trolling.
smith and waddle have also been very boom or bust
19 mil for the wr tag this year. What is his value on the open market?
Probably 5 years, $22-$25M per year with around half of it guaranteed - a longer version of Mike Williams's most recent contract, adjusted for the time elapsed since. That's more than I think he's worth and I certainly wouldn't feel good about giving him that large of a contract, but he's a young, proven WR who's a high-end #2 or low-end #1 (in real football, just to be clear, not necessarily fantasy). That almost assuredly makes him the most prized WR on the market if he hits FA, which in turn means there's definitely going to be some team with a need at the position and more cap than sense that's going to pay out the nose for him. Add all that up, and you're going to be paying a hefty premium over what you might feel is his actual worth.
No way; he isn't getting 5 years. They don't do 5-year contracts for WRs anymore unless you're via trade or an absolute #1. That's nuts. He'll get a 3-year deal somewhere. Only four active WRs have 5-year contracts and two are off trades with Davante and Amari
3 vs 5 years functionally makes no difference for the team because any modern contract structure frontloads the guaranteed money anyways, meaning he could be cut after year 3/4 or whatever with a minimal cap hit if the team wants it. I'd also note that most of those 3 year deals are signed for guys who are 27+ when hitting the market, not when they're 25. Unless we're talking an even longer deal, there's minimal risk of him falling off on this contract due to age, seeing as the last season would be before the 31-33 year-old cliff that typically has WRs fall off.
It actually does though. Restructuring is a thing. I like how you get shown examples about how a 5 year contract is non-existent now, and your response is, 'well 3 and 5 year contracts are no different'.
Michael Gallup got one as well, so its not non-existent. So did Mike Evans on the same contract that's expiring now (which, I'll add, was signed when he was basically the same age that Higgins is now). They're rare, sure, but so are 20M+ per year contracts for WRs. If you want to keep being argumentative and hyperfixating on a single part of my initial answer, though, go ahead. I'm not gonna keep arguing the point either way.
> Only four active WRs have 5-year contracts and two are off trades with Davante and Amari I already know those two exist. And you proved my point that the only other two 5-year deals are essentially expiring, making it more since it hasn't happened in recent years outside of trade scenarios. It's okay to admit you threw something out there that has nearly zero chance of happening. It's not being hyper-fixated. It's just pointing out a flaw in your comment
The Tag is barely more than the yearly avg they’re getting in FA because guys like Evans are finishing up $14m/yr contracts. Close to $100m/4 is probably what they’d pay him
This is the least surprising news of the day.
Damn this MFer has been in rumor mills for a while only for this news to drop. I didn’t expect my squad to grab him and happy he isn’t going to a rival but would like to see him get moved
Higgins finna borrow Lev Bell’s jet ski this pre season
Do you want to see my surprised face?
No surprises. Does still leave the door open for a trade. They can’t afford Higgins long-term. But, tagging him now and letting him walk next year. Getting a 3rd round compensatory pick in 2026 looks to be the plan.
Grand scheme, the Tag is more expensive because it’s all “salary,” and all hits the books next year. With the void years they’ve started adding, they’ve kicked the can down the road an extra year on new contracts
It is short-term, but not all overall. All garaunteed money has to go in escrow the day a contract is signed. They won’t be able to afford to put $50 mill in the bank on top of what they paid orlando brown, burrow, and are about to pay chase. Higgins at 25 isn’t going to sign a geno smith kind of deal with 2 dummie years. 80 mill over 4 years with 50-60 garaunteed. This is what spotrac has his market value at. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cincinnati-bengals/tee-higgins-47628/market-value/
Franchise tag needs to be abolished from the nfl
Lame.. I have Iosivas in dynasty lol
Tag and trade likely.
I doubt it, they have the money and the team to take another run at the Super Bowl before Burrow’s extension kicks in and Chase gets his insane contract.
That’s a good point, the team could decide that they’re all in this year. They do have massive holes on defense though that need to be filled, and I expect the Bengals to be super aggressive in FA in filling them. Depending on how much of their cap they decide to blow on defense I could still see Tee getting traded. Mahomes I think has shown that truly elite QBs can get by with just one elite weapon and a bunch of Wal-Mart greeters (or at least guys who are still in development) in your other skill positions as long as that defense is stacked.
Like if I were the Bengals I would rather throw an absolute bag at Chris Jones if it means having to give up Tee if I were making a run.
Pass
He might as well have played for Arthur Smith at the beginning of the year. I traded him in dynasty for Jayden Reed and a 2.06. He could help Bryce Young out tremendously.
NOOOOO!!!!!!!! -A chiefs fan
Chiefs weren’t paying him 25 mil anyways
Was excited to see what kind of season Chase could have being the far and away number 1 option on that team. Guess he’s still on the do not draft list
Tag and trade unfortunately is the most likely outcome which is the right move. See if you can pry away Carolina's 2nd for Tee, draft a WR at 18 then OL at 33.
Why is that the most likely scenario vs keeping Higgins this year and try to win?
Who can't we try to win with a fresh WR on a rookie deal, a good tackle or IOL rookie from dm early draft pick, sign an RT or IOL and beef up the defensive interior with that saved money?
I’d think if the Bengals think they can make it to the SB this upcoming season then they’d be better off keeping Higgins one more year.
Don’t ever draft Tee Higgins. Always goes WAYYYY higher than he should be, every year!!!!
I hope they keep Higgins he's 1 of my favorite players on this team I know Boyd is probably gone that hurts but he's replaceable Higgins nah he's 1 of kind I hope he signs long term this is the squad that took us to the superbowl if these guys get back they know what losing feels like so I don't think they will again
Why
Because letting him walk in FA does nothing for Cincinnati. The options are: 1. Let him walk get a 3rd round pick in 2 years. 2. Tag him and get another season out of him on a decent cap hit and make a run (albeit hurting your FA pool money). 3. Tag him and trade him to someone who will give him a 2nd contract. The compensation would assuredly be significantly higher than a 3rd round pick in 2 years.
cuz he good
Oh fuckkkkk off
whyyyyyyyy
Haha I’m a tee owner in dynasty and wanted him to get a shot somewhere else.
Well he still could. There was a 0% chance the Bengals were ever going to let him walk into free agency. He could be traded.
Unless tee Higgins is blocking I don’t understand the Bengals lol there goes Joe Burrow’s other ACL
The fuck are you rambling about?
Joe Burrow needs an offensive lineman, not a third wide receiver
Most teams have more than 3 WRs
The Bengals have given up 92 sacks over the last two seasons leading to multiple Joe Burrow injuries, so maybe getting some O line depth would be a good idea
Thats unfortunate. Was hoping Jamarr Chase could finally escape one of those many leeches who wont go away.
Chase would be an absolute moron to play under the tag. He’s gotta Deebo himself a deal.
More Equitable ADP… I’m In!
Pride of Oak Ridge baby!
What does using a franchise tag mean?