The Cincinnati Bengals aren’t trading Tee Higgins.
That’s perhaps the most-written sentence about the Bengals here and elsewhere over the course of the last year.
And yet, that won’t stop the ideas from pouring in ahead of the NFL trade deadline.
Case in point, when outlining deals he would love to see, USA Today’s Tyler Dragon lists the Bengals sending Higgins to the Pittsburgh Steelers as one of the top six:
Higgins is a strong receiver, has a good catch radius and is comfortable playing as the X or Z receiver.
Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin said before that he’s not in the business of making other teams better, and the Bengals certainly don’t want to do business with a division rival. But Higgins would be an excellent fit in Pittsburgh’s offensive system and form a great pairing with George Pickens.
Bengals fans, undoubtedly, would not love to see that one.
It’s a lopsided idea in the sense that it stresses how fun it would be to see Higgins in Pittsburgh’s offense, which is fair. Higgins would be an ideal fit there and give the Steelers a reliable weapon they can’t seem to draft well, considering the risks that franchise takes at the position that tends to backfire.
But that makes this more interesting from a free-agency perspective next offseason, not at this year’s deadline.
The Bengals won’t trade away Higgins for pretty much any offer. The offense is simply much better when he’s on the field and there’s still the slim chance they can get him back on a long-term deal next summer. Unlikely, but rest assured the front office thinks that way.
And the Bengals especially wouldn’t trade Higgins within the division. They might have to line up twice per year against him if he chooses the Steelers in free agency next summer, but the Bengals wouldn’t intentionally do that to themselves, anyway.
To top it all off, Higgins is hurt again anyway and the team’s win-now trade move on Tuesday morning shows that the Bengals are all-in as buyers, not sellers.
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