LOVELAND MAGAZINE

News and Events from the Loveland, Ohio Area

Without fear or favor
Since 2004

Tag: Franchise Tag

  • The Tee Higgins Saga Continues

    The Tee Higgins Saga Continues

    by Chris Ball

    Loveland, Ohio – The Bengals and one of their key players fail to reach an agreement on a long-term contract. The franchise tag looms. Sabres rattle, there are questions of a potential holdout. And all the while Bengals fans wait and see.

    Sound familiar?

    It should for anyone who remembers the Jessie Bates contract episode from several years ago. The former Cincinnati safety signed a four-year, $64.02 million deal with the Atlanta Falcons in 2023 after spending 5 years wearing the orange and black. Bates and the Bengals attempted to reach an agreement on an extension after the expiration of his rookie contract but nothing materialized. The Bengals applied the franchise tag and Bates responded by skipping the team’s offseason workouts or the majority of training camp before rejoining the team in August. But in the end he took the field that season and performed well, setting a career high mark (to that point) with 4 interceptions. What’s more, he played his way into that sizable deal with the Falcons. The following year he instantly proved he was worth it, leading the team in tackles, passes defenses, and interceptions, and being named to the pro bowl on top of it.

    And this week, Bengals fans got a stark reminder of that process when Tee Higgins failed to sign his franchise tender after he, too, could not get what he needed in terms of a multi year deal from the team. Unfortunately, it appears that the negotiations did not go remotely well according to the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Kelsey Conway:

    “Tee Higgins camp was looking for an offer that was similar to the Michael Pittman deal with the Colts…

    His camp felt that the Bengals initial one time offer was so low that it couldn’t even move into a conversation about guaranteed money”

    As a reference, Pittman signed a three-year, $70 million contract extension with $46 million guaranteed with the Colts in March. Now, to be fair, an entire series of articles probably wouldn’t be enough to recount the issues with the Bengals’ front office and their treatment of potential free agents, what it means for now is that Tee will not be with the team for the foreseeable future. While this isn’t certainly isn’t a welcome sign, it doesn’t spell the end of Higgins’ time with the team. This includes Higgins himself who admitted that he’ll probably be wearing a Bengals uniform next year even after requesting a trade. In addition, missing offseason team activities in May (which many players skip anyways) doesn’t signal any sign of a longer holdout. There’s simply no need to panic so early, as the two camps have until July 15th to work out a long-term contract extension. After that, he would be locked into playing on the one-year franchise tag through the 2024 season, making $21.8 million doing it.

    Interestingly enough, Jessie Bates was asked about Higgins’ situation, given his experience and the fact that both men are represented by the same agent, David Mulugheta. His advice was certainly sage:

    “My thing for Tee is just, I mean, work on your craft, it don’t matter. If this is the contract year, I say it every time: Every year is a contract year. You should go out there and ball out and train like this is one of your last years to play.”

    This is yet another reason why concerns about a holdout are overblown: players derive no benefit from removing themselves from the NFL spotlight for an entire season. If it’s a monster contract that they seek, then Jessie Bates’ path is undoubtedly the correct one to pursue: take the field in your contract year, play your absolute hardest, and show the rest of the league that you are worthy of the money you’re asking for. You can’t do that from your couch holding out, and so the overwhelming consensus is that by the time this Bengals team takes the field in the fall, Tee Higgins will be there.

    While that may be comforting it is true that offseason workouts have tangible benefits, even for players line Tee who have played multiple years in the league. Missing them has at least some negative impact on timing with Burrow, with continuity and with chemistry. So while these absences aren’t harbingers of gloom and doom they are important from a team’s perspective, and to get the best out of every player.

    And we all know Tee wants to play his absolute best in 2024, as his recent training video shows.

    In 58 games over the course of his career, Higgins has 257 receptions for 3,684 yards and 24 touchdowns. But he has never been the number one receiving option for an entire season. Those numbers are solid and he is a good wide receiver. If he proves that he can put up the numbers of a superstar WR1 for the Bengals next year, it will only benefit all parties. And so the play here isn’t to be sour about Tee’s offseason decisions, but to root like hell that if this is his last season for the Cincinnati Bengals, that he makes it his best one ever.

    Hey readers… have an opinion about sports? How about a topic you’d like to see written about in Loveland Magazine or a thought about one of our articles?

    Just need to vent and get out your frustration about the Reds, Bengals, or any other sports issues?

    Feel free to share with an email to LovelandSportsGuy@gmail.com!

    We would love to hear from our readers, and we thank you for your support and engagement.

    Christopher Ball is a longtime Loveland resident and an attorney. He graduated from Loveland High School in 2003 and was a member of the football team before going on to become a coach’s assistant at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. He has been following and rooting for the Reds and Bengals since the early 1990s and has been through the many ups and downs that fandom has wrought over the years.

  • Cincinnati Bengals Apply the Franchise Tag to Tee Higgins

    Cincinnati Bengals Apply the Franchise Tag to Tee Higgins

    Photo by Wikimedia Commons

    Though a Long-Term Deal May Still Be a Possibility, Absent a Holdout, The Bengals Should Have Their Clutch Second Wide Receiver Back In 2024

    by Chris Ball

    Loveland, Ohio – As most expected, this weekend the Cincinnati Bengals applied the franchise tag to wide receiver Tee Higgins. I previously discussed what the franchise tag could potentially mean for the team and for Tee going forward, but the fact that the Bengals chose to use the tag so soon in the offseason leads to some interesting speculation about what the future could bring.

    The franchise tag makes it extremely likely that Tee Higgins will be on this team for at least one more year. However, as early as a few days ago there were reports that both sides were working towards a deal that would keep Higgins in the orange and black for multiple years. But the fact that the team opted immediately resort to the franchise tag so soon after those negotiations even began leads to legitimate concerns that both sides are still miles apart.

     

     

    The absolute worst-case scenario is that the two sides of can’t get a deal done and Tee refuses to report and play under the guaranteed one-year contract he has been given. On the other end the optimistic outlook is that the exercise of the franchise tag allows both sides to continue to negotiate and come to some sort of agreement on a contract that benefits all parties.

    The fact that the franchise tag came so early in the offseason is a legitimate cause to be concerned about how badly the negotiations may be going. And yet, it is hard to see a player as committed as Tee Higgins choosing to abandon the entire 2024 season by sitting out simply because he didn’t get the contract he wanted.

    At the same time, Bengals fans shouldn’t trick themselves into believing that Higgins will fetch some sort of massive haul on the trade market. The tag and trade scenarios simply don’t make sense given the Bengals’ history of avoiding that very situation, and that most teams likely wouldn’t be willing to part with significant picks or players that would make such a trade worthwhile for the Bengals.

     

     

    The Bengals have a surplus of cap space, and they need a proven second option behind Ja’Marr Chase. This gives them more flexibility to keep Tee on the squad for one more year to run it back and give the Bengals the best chance to make it back to the Super Bowl.

    The primary focus now should be ensuring that if the Bengals can’t give Tee Higgins the multi year contract that he wants, that they get him ready for at least one more year with the Bengals to make a run at a championship.

    Christopher Ball is a longtime Loveland resident and an attorney. He graduated from Loveland High School in 2003 and was a member of the football team before going on to become a coach’s assistant at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. He has been following and rooting for the Reds and Bengals since the early 1990s and has been through the many ups and downs that fandom has wrought over the years.

     

  • What Does The Future Hold For Tee Higgins?

    What Does The Future Hold For Tee Higgins?

    by Chris Ball

    Loveland, Ohio – Injuries derailed so much of the promise last season for the Bengals. While the most crucial was to Joe Burrow, Tee Higgins also missed five games due to various injuries and was limited to just 42 receptions, the lowest total of his career. It was very bad timing in a contract year for a player who surely wanted to show the Bengals and the league that he was deserving of a big payday.

    That leaves Higgins and the Bengals in a very unique position this offseason. The team has $53.2 million in cap space which is good for sixth-most in the NFL. There is money to spend , but also plenty of needs to fill including an impending mega-extension for Ja’Marr Chase.

    This is why many Bengals pundits believe that the Franchise Tag is the most likely option with respect to Higgins’ contract status going forward. Briefly, the Franchise Tag a would allow the Bengals to retain Higgins at a salary that reflects the average of the top five players at his position or 120% of his previous salary – whichever figure is higher. There are two types of “tags” the exclusive tag, which would prevent Tee from negotiating with any other team and would fully guarantee his salary.

    The other is the non-exclusive tag which allows players to negotiate with other teams even if they are tagged. If Tee reaches a deal with another team, the Bengals would retain the right to match the deal if they wish. If they choose not to match and Tee signs somewhere else the Bengals would receive a pair of first-round picks as compensation for losing him.

    The average salary of the top five wide receivers would mean that if the Franchise Tag is applied to Tee his potential contract would be for one year at $20.7 million. Bengals fans may recall that this was the track taken by the team with respect to Jessie Bates who played out his year on the Franchise Tag before signing with the Atlanta Falcons last year. It wasn’t a very pretty process as Bates skipped all offseason workouts and much of training camp before finally signing his contract for the year. And just as with Higgins, there were logistical issues in offering Bates a lucrative long-term deal given the need for yet another gargantuan contract the following year for an irreplaceable star player: Joe Burrow.

    It seems unlikely that the Bengals and Higgins will reach an agreement on any sort of extension, though it is a possibility. That leaves the Franchise Tag as the most viable option. The Bengals must tag Higgins by March 5 but the two sides can still negotiate for a longer deal. If they can’t agree by July 15 then (if put in place) the tag becomes official and Tee would be playing on the one-year contract.

    That isn’t necessarily the end of the story, however. There is a question as to whether Tee Higgins would play under the tag. Though it’s rare, players have threatened to sit out an entire season rather than play under the cloud of a one-year contract. While it’s too early to predict what Higgins’ reaction might be, contract talks and the millions of dollars at issue rarely lead to simple or clean solutions.

    The Bengals could apply the tag to Higgins and then trade him to another team that could then work out a longer contract, which is commonly referred to as a “tag and trade.” However, the Bengals are not known for even normal trades much less trades of players playing under the Franchise Tag.

    If Tee Higgins is back for another year, no matter how that’s accomplished, it will undoubtedly be a good thing for this team. Yes, he was injured last year and had some issues with drops, but he showed that he still can be a dynamic and impactful wide receiver. You have no further to look than his 80-yard touchdown against the Steelers to see that when healthy he is a top tier wide receiver.

    Tyler Boyd is gone, Charlie Jones and Andrei Iosivas are young and developing. The Bengals have no consistent threats at tight end. A healthy and productive Tee Higgins punishes teams for double teaming Ja’Marr Chase and frees him up to run deeper routes. Higgins is athletic for his size and strong enough to out muscle most corners in the NFL.

    Even if it is for one year at 20 million, getting Tee Higgins on the field for this team in 2024 is an absolute priority. The window for the Bengals to win and make deep playoff runs will not stay open forever, especially as superstars like Chase (rightfully) will be paid vast sums of money, shrinking the pie for other players on this team.

    While that window is open, the Bengals must do whatever is necessary to put the best players on the field. Players like Tee Higgins.

    Christopher Ball is a longtime Loveland resident and an attorney. He graduated from Loveland High School in 2003 and was a member of the football team before going on to become a coach’s assistant at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. He has been following and rooting for the Reds and Bengals since the early 1990s and has been through the many ups and downs that fandom has wrought over the years.