Bengals Place Franchise Tag on Wide Receiver Tee Higgins By: Grant Winsauer

According to NFL insider Ian Rapoport Friday, the Cincinnati Bengals informed No. 2 widereceiver Tee Higgins they were placing a franchise tag on him.

The tag is expected to be worth around $21.8 million guaranteed, confirmed by Rapoport in a follow-up tweet later in the day.

Higgins was selected in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft. The Bengals followed that by drafting Ja’Marr Chase with the No. 5 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. After that, Higgins becamethe Robin to Chase’s Batman. According to ESPN.com, he has caught 257 targets for 3,684 yards and 24 touchdowns.

Higgins is not happy about getting franchise-tagged, but no one ever is. It should be a top priority to figure out a long-term contract with Higgins. According to A-to-Z Sports, if the Bengals can reach a long-term deal with Higgins; the contract could reflect a three-year, $70.5 million extension.

This is surprising because usually, a long-term deal is four or five years. Higgins, 24, might want to be locked in for that long. A good thing to note is that the salary cap was raised by $30 million on Friday, so teams will have extra money to spend on free agents.

With the increase in the salary cap, some free agents could ask for more money because of that. 2 Now, let’s say that Higgins doesn’t want to play on the franchise tag; he could sit out this year and become a free agent next year. Le’Veon Bell did something similar where the Steelers tagged him for a second straight year, and he didn’t want to play on the tag. So, Bell decided to sit out the year and become a free agent the following season.

Per CBS Sports, Bell signed a four-year, $52 million contract with the New York Jets during the 2019 offseason, and it didn’t work out that well. Higgins and the Bengals should be strategic and figure out a long-term deal to keep him around, or he should just play on the tag and show how much he is worth to this team.