Cincinnati Bengals star wide receiver Tee Higgins will play the 2024 season on the franchise tag. The Bengals placed the franchise tag on Higgins earlier this year when they couldn’t agree to a long-term deal with the former Clemson star.
Cincinnati would prefer to keep Higgins, who has over 1,000 yards receiving in two of his four NFL seasons, but it must also pay fellow wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase. Chase is arguably the NFL’s top wide receiver, and his price has gone way up in recent days, as seen in some of the other wide receiver contracts.
To be fair, Higgins has earned a significant payday, too. And he will get it, but it doesn’t look like that will happen with the Bengals. Cincinnati missed a prime opportunity to move Higgins at the 2024 NFL draft. The Bengals are notorious for not trading players when their value is at an all-time high and may have missed that window with Higgins.
However, there are still over three months before the 2024 NFL season. Some teams still have holes at wide receiver. Could someone give Cincinnati an offer it couldn’t refuse?
Could the Washington Commanders be one of those teams? Maurice Moton of Bleacher Report names five teams, including the Commanders, who could make the Bengals a tempting offer.
Here’s his logic:
The Washington Commanders have the second-most cap space with $43.4 million. They can allocate a chunk of that cap space to Higgins’ new contract with the intent to do everything possible to help Jayden Daniels get off to a quick career start.
Washington can afford to be aggressive in acquiring playmakers while Daniels is on a rookie deal.
With this trade, it would have a deep receiver group that includes Terry McLaurin, Jahan Dotson, rookie third-rounder Luke McCaffrey and Higgins.
McLaurin, Dotson and McCaffrey can rotate in the slot, which would allow Higgins to continue taking most of his snaps on the outside.
As a rebuilding team, Washington’s own 2025 draft picks may be early in each round, which is something the Cincinnati Bengals should consider if they open up trade discussions that involve Higgins.
The offer in this scenario would be the Commanders sending a 2025 second-round pick and a 2025 fourth-round pick for Higgins.
Acquiring Higgins also means paying him at the top of the market. While he would be a nice addition for rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels, this doesn’t seem like a fit. A more likely scenario would be the Commanders trading for 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk and paying him. General manager Adam Peters had a hand in drafting Aiyuk and Daniels is close to the star wideout from their time at Arizona State.
The other teams named as potential Higgins suitors are the Los Angeles Chargers, New England Patriots, Detroit Lions and Arizona Cardinals.