Cincinnati Bengals Plan to Tag Tee Higgins, Hopeful About Long-Term Contract

Cincinnati Bengals On SI

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00:00I wanted to give some context, some insight into my report today for BengalsTalk.com.

00:07And it's one that has a lot of fan bases, I think, either scratching their head or slamming

00:12their fist down or being very angry about things.

00:16And that's that the Bengals plan on franchise tagging Tee Higgins if they can't get a long-term

00:21deal done.

00:23And the reason the report—and I'm going to get into details, as much detail as I can

00:27about what I've known, how I've known it, all of the things in between, kind of a tell-all

00:33type of scenario.

00:34And again, I think it's something on this audio platform that you're not going to hear

00:38me talk about anywhere else.

00:42And so I wanted to give you a little context on that because tagging Tee Higgins to me

00:46was a no-brainer.

00:47It's something last week that I wrote for BengalsTalk.com.

00:50I did a video on it for Cincinnati Bengals Talk.

00:54You heard audio when I was discussing the different scenarios here of what could happen

00:58with Tee.

00:59And it's pretty simple.

01:01You have a 26-year-old star receiver who's the best free agent in this class.

01:05You can tag him for $26.18 million, which is a rough estimate of what it'll be.

01:13It's a very close estimate, rather, not a rough estimate of what it'll be.

01:17It may change a little bit, but it's going to be $26 million that they can tag him for.

01:21And so it's a no-brainer.

01:24The fact that this surprised some fan bases is because they don't pay attention or they

01:28just really don't want to believe the reality of the situation.

01:32There isn't a team in the NFL, whether they have Jamar Chase or not, Joe Burrow or not,

01:37there isn't a team in the NFL that would not tag Tee Higgins.

01:41You 100% have to tag him.

01:44And I think a lot of Bengals fans and certainly listeners and viewers of Cincinnati Bengals

01:50Talk or if you listen to me and Jake Lisko on Locked on Bengals or watch us on Locked

01:54on Bengals, I think that's the other side of it is you're informed, you understand it,

02:00you got it from the get-go and boom, there you go.

02:04At the same time, I look at the situation and I see everyone that says, oh, well, this

02:12has got to be a tag and trade.

02:13This has got to be a tag and trade.

02:15There's no way they're going to tag him for a second year.

02:17I can't believe they're going to do that to him.

02:19And I got to be honest.

02:25I'm not sure Tee is all that upset when he saw that report from me.

02:30I think he's aware of it.

02:32I think his camp is very aware of it.

02:35And the goal is still the goal.

02:39And the goal has been the goal since pre-Joe Burrow making the comments he did after the

02:45Bengals beat the Cowboys on Monday Night Football when he said, oh, yeah, we have a plan to

02:49keep Tee.

02:50I expect to keep Tee.

02:51And then that was Monday and then he talked again Wednesday and I asked him, so is Tee

02:57a need?

02:58Because he said you have needs and wants and obviously their season was basically over

03:01at that point.

03:02And he said, oh, yeah, Tee is a need.

03:05And I asked him about his value and what he meant and all of those things.

03:07He was like, it doesn't even always show up in the box score.

03:09It's just the attention he brings, the gravity he has, the impact that he has.

03:13Tee is a need.

03:14And since then, literally the past two months has been a, ah man, they better keep Tee.

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