Bengals tag Tee Higgins again despite WR’s desire for new long-term deal

Tee Higgins has been looking for a long-term deal with the Cincinnati Bengals after playing on the franchise tag last season.

Bengals tag Tee Higgins again despite WR’s desire for new long-term deal

Cincinnati Bengals place second consecutive franchise tag on Tee Higgins (Image via NFL/X)

Tee Higgins wants to stay with the Cincinnati Bengals, a notion his colleagues Joe Burrow as well as Ja’Marr Chase share. But the wideout wants to stay for the long term as they collectively look to win a Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history.

He wanted a long-term deal last season too, but both sides could not come to an agreement. This season, Burrow has been quite vocal of his desire to continue throwing passes at No. 5 in the years to come. However, there was no sign of both sides agreeing to a longer duration contract.

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From the start of this offseason, all the noise coming from the camp was about another franchise tag. Hearing this rumor enraged Higgins’ mother, after all, he has done enough over the years to secure a lucrative longer-term deal.

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At the NFL Combine, team executives agreed they want to keep him beyond this season. But the wideout called cap on that as his messages felt as if he did not feel the team wanted to keep him for the long run. That seemingly proved itself today when Adam Schefter revealed this.

Bengals placed the $26.2 million franchise tag on WR Tee Higgins. This marks the second straight year that the Bengals have used their franchise tag on Higgins. The Bengals said they did so with the ‘intent of continuing to work toward a long-term deal in Cincinnati’.

Adam Schefter wrote

This franchise tag and the intention to work out a long-term deal indicate that the team at least want to secure his services for another season. It could also mean that essentially the team are looking to sign a long-term deal only at the right price.

Tee Higgins responds to second consecutive franchise tag

This franchise tag may be worth $26.2 million, but it might not be the money Higgins is looking for. He has stated that he is willing to take less if that means the team can sign more players. But after news of this franchise tag hit social media, he reacted to it with a simple message.

Joe Burrow wants to throw to Tee Higgins long term
Joe Burrow wants to throw to Tee Higgins long term (Image via Imago)

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Tee Higgins wrote via X

This could just be another information laced tweet. Or it was cryptic enough to show the world that the Cincinnati Bengals did what they wanted. It will be two seasons since first conversations started on the 26-year-old’s future. Yet no solution has come about.

In all this time the franchise has not been able to agree to a contract that their star wideout wants. Could this be an indication that things can go awry? Several players have refused to play on the tag and forced teams to finalize that contract. How Tee Higgins responds to this will have an impact on their season.

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