Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins is one of the biggest overall names headed to free agency this offseason.
Case in point, while ranking the top 50 free agents for ESPN, Matt Bowen slots Higgins at No. 7 overall, behind only the likes of Chris Jones and Brian Burns:
The 6-foot-4 target can produce at all three levels of the route tree, making him our top wide receiver in free agency. Higgins has 24 touchdowns over four seasons, along with two 1,000-yard seasons — despite sharing targets in the Bengals offense with Ja’Marr Chase. He has the inside/outside alignment flexibility and vertical stretch traits to post high-end numbers as a volume pass-catcher.
Three other Bengals make the list, all of them understandable: Chidobe Awuzie, Jonah Williams and DJ Reader.
As Bengals fans well understand by now, Higgins might not be on a list like this for long. If the team and his reps can’t agree to a long-term deal before the market opens, the Bengals are likely to apply the franchise tag to retain control for one more year.
That tag would check in at around $21.7 million, but it would figure to be a number the team is more than willing to meet in order to remain in win-now mode as much as possible.
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