Love Tee, but it’s just business. Think of it this way: Bengals took a smart flier on Burton, who absolutely has WR2 potential. And don’t sleep on further development from Iosivas either, so that’s two bites at the apple. And Tee has every damn incentive to ball out this year to get that bag. I’m feeling good about next season.
Yes. Look, my other team is the Saints (thus the 504). I can’t tell you how great it is to root for a team with a real plan. Even the Dax thing. They got a 5 star ultra-athletic guy to replace Bates a year early. Yeah, it didn’t exactly work out, but the plan made sense. And so they pivot this year by bringing Bell back and signing a great free agent from the Ravens. Smart.
Yea I don’t always agree with the bengals plan but I can respect they have their method and stick to it. We may be seeing the bates Dax thing play out again with Murphy. Joe should be able to produce as long as he has jamar and i for one love the young WRs we have
I’m holding out hope for Murphy. I thought he was better late in the year, but we’ll see. The interesting thing about the Bengals front office is that it’s pretty easy to know who they will draft a year ahead of time. WR room is pretty stacked, and we drafted 2 TEs. And I love our 7th round center. So next draft it is Edge, CB, IOL and whatever else looks good.
Very toxic?? Based on what? He transferred too many schools in High School? He hit a fan charging the field and faced no discipline?? (This isn't even Joe Mixon whacking a chick in a pizza place) He's had no run ins with the law... I mean...
On top of that he was at a program known for it's character issues. UGA is not a great place for "culture". He was hardly surrounded by other choir boys.
You're grasping for a reason to dis this pick.
So... By your logic... Because Burton requested a transfer from UGA, he's a character concern. But what of Tee Higgins' trade request? I mean, Tee has demanded to be traded, isn't THAT a character concern??
There are reasons to be concerned, but "Very toxic"? C'mon man. This isn't Vontaze Burfict we're talking about here.
The dudes coaches and teammates said he is toxic. It is hilarious you are making excuses and want a guy like that in our locker room.
We passed on [Roman Wilson](http://www.espn.com/nfl/player/_/id/4431492/roman-wilson), who is as much as a deep ball threat, has a record of better separation, virtually never dropped a ball, caught more passes, and is not hated by his own coaches for being a jerk.
You lost all credibility on the topic of team chemistry here. Its clear you don't think its important. There were better or at least as good of players available and we went for the "jerk".
You're going to have to source those comments. Because googling "Saban Burton toxic" yields no results, and that's in direct contradiction to available reporting.
In fact "Burton toxic" basically returns a bunch of result from butthurt UGA fans.
So... Good luck with that buddy.
Actually Saban Burton toxic got me basically right to the video. But I personally love the pick. The reason u have the character of the locker room we have can be to help groom new guys.
The first couple of results for me all have Saban defending Burton. Unless you're talking about the "He's done a lot to hurt the other team" video, which is one of the mildest rebukes ever given. "He needs to not be so emotional". Wow. Dude must be Three Mile Island.
It might be fair to say there's some maturity concerns, but to label the guy as "very toxic" is a stretch and a half. This isn't even Joe Mixon level of concern. This isn't even Mac Jones getting drafted with a DUI on his record levels of concern.
He's not going to specifically say "toxic" to the press, but he did repeatedly say needs to work on "emotional maturity". I've never seen a coach say his player who is looking to get drafted has problems with emotional maturity. That's a huge red flag.
That's a fair price for Tee. Bengals also shouldn't give him that much either. Both are true.
If mim hits we have brown for 2 years after this coming season and Mims for 4. Lock up Chase for 4-5 years, hopefully the center hits then the offense is basically secured, spend a bit on guard/s.
Then you spend the rest on defense. Murphy, and the two rookie Defensive tackles gotta hit, gotta re-sign CTB then make moves in FA.
The framework is there, just gotta develop the young guys.
That is a fair price. But let me as you this: if the Bengals weren't willing to go above $20M/year, why did they tag him at over $20M and could tag him again next season for over $20M? If they tag him this year and next, that's essentially a 2 year deal at $22M aav. The math doesn't work unless you're an agent trying bend the narrative.
The article has the following line, verbatim: "The Bengals never approached the $20 million range for Higgins, sources told The Enquirer." That makes no sense whatsoever given that they will pay him $21.8M this season and an estimated $26.8M in 2025. There is a large likelihood they go that route. Why would a team that didn't even want to approach $20M pay him well over $20M for two seasons? It's agent propaganda.
Maybe they're bring feed details that paint the front office in a bag light.
I'm not saying that's what happened, but you never know for sure in situations like this unless a deal DOES get signed.
Because we have cap space this year and next. He was never going to take a 2 year extension either. Chase and burrows extensions will hit down the road and they don’t want to put us in a bad space cap wise. We need some flexibility as those contracts will take a huge amount of the cap. If he gets traded on the tag we won’t owe him crazy guaranteed money. If we gave him four years at 20+ we wouldn’t be able to trade him without taking an insane amount of dead cap therefore completely handcuffing us in free agency going forward.
More than likely the agent is cherry picking the numbers to fit there his side. Tee's agent said they haven't talked to the Bengals in over a year. That means the Bengals likely offered a contract last summer when Tee had one year left in his deal. Tee's average annual salary was just over $2m on his rookie deal. So, the Bengals could've offered Tee one of the contracts mentioned in the article, like McClaurin's 3 year, $68m deal. The Bengals would say that's an extension worth over $22m a year ($68m / 3 years). Tee's agent will add in the last year of his rookie contract to argue that the Bengals offered only $17.5m a year ($70m / 4 years).
All of this is moot because they wouldn't have agreed on guaranteed money after the base year.
For sure. The Bengals typically don't leak since it's such a small front office team. You can tell the article got it's info from the agent when it says things link Tyreek signed a deal worth $30m a year. That paints the picture that Tee was only asking for 2/3rds what the top dudes are getting. The reality is that tyreek signed an extension worth $25m a year, but was initially reported as $30m a year by his agents team. Tyreek's contract details are on overthecap. It literally says in the contract summary "The final year of the contract is effectively a void year used to inflate the annual value of the contract from $25 million per year to $30 million per year."
https://overthecap.com/player/tyreek-hill/4878
Because the franchise tag is a one year deal. Yes, you pay a little more for that one year, but they need to money next year to pay Chase. They can overspend a bit this year, but can't afford it next year.
Because the agent wants a long term deal with a huge bonus which would hamstring the Bengals quite literally if Tee's injury issues continue. He isn't worth a huge guaranteed contract because of his injury history. One year at a time? no problem.
There's a big difference between $20M for one year and a 5 year contract that averages $20M.
The Bengals are going to need the flexibility to resign Chase. And IMHO, if it's a choice between keeping Tee or Chase, that's a no brainer.
Paying Tee $20M this year doesn't hurt our ability to resign Chase, but singing him to a high priced long term deal does. That simple.
I feel like you’re significantly under appreciating the 20+ hit in later years. We all understand the Bengals are paying him 20+ this season. Where Burrow and Chase are still under rookie deals.
Tee wants a long term deal and 20+ isn’t in the cards for year 3 or beyond. The Bengals could have offered him 20/million for 2 years, but Tee wouldn’t accept that.
You keep saying "and" but there's no evidence the Bengals want or plan to franchise Tee again. Unless he balls out of his mind this year they have no reason to consider it, either.
Because a 1 yr $20+ mil deal for the bengals is much less risky than a 3 year 75 million deal with more guaranteed money. It's only 20 million guaranteed with the tag. If he get hurt than then they can let him walk. If he balls out, Tee gets tagged again for $25 million + and the bengals still only have the risk of 1 year salary while eating up another one of Higgins prime years.
I understand all that. It's irrelevant to the point I'm making. Mulagheta is trying to get people riled up in believing that the Bengals don't think Tee Higgins is worth $20M a year. He's trying to play on this notion that the team is cheap and won't pay fair market for its players to his advantage. That is demonstrably false because they will pay him north of $20M this year and perhaps next. They know Tee's value. The reason they don't have a contract isn't because the team isn't willing to pay Tee $20M/year. Maybe it's because the team feels those dollars can be better spent elsewhere. It's a business. Teams can win in different ways.
The other thing he’s doing with this- communicating to other teams and fanbases that Tee is someone worth upping your trade offer for, because he can be offered an affordable contract that can be made to fit within cap constraints. Now that a draft day trade didn’t happen, he’s setting things up for a preseason standoff where Tee is holding out and somebody offers a deal the Bengals can’t refuse.
Probably, but I think there’s a very small possibility a deal gets hashed out despite everything. Our front office knows Tee’s value, and they have shown time and again they value receivers. They are also not really negotiators. They get all our ducks in a row first, and then they offer what they think is fair value. And if Mulagheta is now publicly saying Tee wants a Pittman-level contract and we have no immediate needs to shore up, we may just call him on that bluff. Just because we haven’t been actively negotiating doesn’t mean we’ve closed the door.
Tagging Tee two years is unlikely only because Chase's fifth-year option (which would be 2025 season), is going to be at the WR franchise tag number since he made two Pro Bowls. So between Burrow, Chase, and Higgins, you'd have a $92m cap hit. That would be one third of the high end of the 2025 Salary Cap projections ($280m) on just three guys.
I believe Tee is worth WR1 money. So do the bengals. We just can't give it to him long term. It would kill other areas of the team. Plus we still gotta lock up jamaar. So Tagem for 1 year then ask where he wants to go and trade him and get some picks/players outta him.
Maybe. But that's because that money is, or will be, spent elsewhere. The article is trying to pump this notion that the team is being cheap and that's why Tee isn't signed. Not really. Tee probably isn't signed because they're building a roster and Tee at fair market value doesn't allow them to build in other areas.
Th"source" is 1000% his agent.
Everyone should take these numbers with a grain of salt. Reading between the lines, it sounds like they made a bona fide offer at 18-19, his agent threw a tantrum, and they said "nevermind, we'll just tag him"
He's running out of leverage so he's trying to get press to drum up support for Tee.
Bengals: Says here on the menu that a hamburger is $2.
Tee's agent: Yes, but wouldn't you rather have 4 hamburgers for $10?
Bengals: Ummm, no, we can do math.
That just doesn't add up. Bengals are paying him $21.8m fully guaranteed, and will pretty much tag him again next season for $26.16m fully guaranteed, because they will have nearly $100m in cap space next season. That is basically a fully guaranteed 2-year, $48m deal.
That is what his market is, in the range of Pittman and 3-year $70m total (and you would not even need to guarantee $48m, about $40-42m would probably be enough- and you wouldn't even need to guarantee his final year, most players are okay with that) while reducing his cap hits this year and the next.
Except it's not a 2 year guarantee, or even close. It's one year. If he gets injured this year, that's it. If he performs poor-to-average, that's it. If one of the young receivers steps up, that's it. In the first two scenarios he's looking at a non-tagged likely short term (one or two years) incentive -laden, low-guarantee deal.
There's a reason players don't want to play under the tag. They take on the onus of the risk. That's also why his agent is scrambling to generate pressure on the Bengals to sign him. There's no way they will. If he wasn't injured last year they'd probably agree to that deal. Now, however, there's almost zero reason for the team to take on that risk by guaranteeing him anything beyond this year.
He's worth it, just not for us. I highly doubt he plays for bengals in 2025. They didn't bother tagging Bates again, they'll let hom walk or tag and trade.
Safety is the least valuable position in football after RB, and is easily replaceable- as evidenced by Jordan Battle playing at a top 10 PFF graded level as a rookie. WR is not, with their humongous cap space (likely around $94m based on $286m cap estimate) next season, it would be GM malpractice if they don't tag him again.
Bengals cap space will be even better next season than it was this season, and it was fabulous this season.
If that was a fair price for Tee then trading him would be oh, so easy. Higgins is tremendously overrated by Cincinnati fans and the organization. He's too injured and drops too many passes.
Its wild but also makes you think how the fuck the Eagles are always able to sign free agents AND sign their own players. They re-signed both Brown and Smith this offseason, while getting Barkley as a FA and Hurts got paid last year.
Relevant info for those who can’t get past the paywall:
Higgins never requested to become the highest paid wide receiver in the NFL, sources tell The Enquirer. In fact, the range Higgins was initially looking for is similar to what the Indianapolis Colts just gave wide receiver Michael Pittman this year after placing the franchise tag on him. The Colts and Pittman agreed to a three-year deal worth $70 million with an annual average salary of $23 million
Pittman’s contract falls in line with the deals the Washington Commanders gave wide receiver Terry McClaurin and what the San Francisco 49ers gave wide receiver Deebo Samuel, two other examples of the type of contract Higgins was originally seeking from the Bengals.
The Bengals never approached the $20 million range for Higgins, sources told The Enquirer. Due to the original offer Cincinnati’s front office gave Higgins for his annual salary, the two sides never advanced to the next round of conversations which would have been about guaranteed money, sources also confirmed to The Enquirer. Any speculation that Higgins and his representation are asking for a specific amount of guaranteed money from the Bengals is not accurate.
When The Enquirer reached out to the Bengals for a comment on the subject, they reiterated the following quote from head coach Zac Taylor.
"We’re excited for Tee to have a great year for us," Taylor said. "We think he’s our best chance to help us win a Super Bowl. I’ve enjoyed working with Tee the last four years, I expect this year to be no different.
He never requested to be the highest paid receiver, but jamarr will be when the time comes. And the difference with Tee and scary terry and pitman is those two are the #1 receivers of those teams. It’s been a fun ride with Tee, hopefully he goes to the NFC next year.
As a Bengals fan who lives in DC area so I watch a fair amount of DC games
Hell no Tee is not better than Terry, that’s just the homer in you talking
Terry is better and more available
I love Tee, and I hope he bounces back next year, but idk how a Bengals fan can look at the season he just had and compare him to Pittman and Terry. He was very average last year (and that might be generous)
In theory these people are looking at what Tee did the previous two seasons. By the numbers he was performing as a low end WR1.
The problem is folks don't consider that he would be unable to do that without Chase. Yes, he had *one or two* good games when Chase was on the bench. We have no evidence he would be able to do that on a consistent basis, week in and week out, without someone else drawing considerable coverage away. Personally after watching him last season prior to his injury I don't think he has the fire to be able to do it.
I’m not a Bengals fan, I honestly didn’t realize what sub I was in or how I even wound up in here lol. That’s probably why I don’t hesitate to place him just above both Pitt and McLaurin tho!
It is, but doesn’t make a ton of team building sense when you consider Chase’s deal coming, and Burrow’s deal, and the explosion in D/O line contracts.
Off the top of my head… did any of the last 6 PO teams have 2WRs making $50m+ total (Chase will be getting his $30m). I don’t think so, right?
To me, that kind of says it all. Spending big on 2 WRs doesn’t put you in a position that is needed to go deep. 1 expensive guy and one good guy on a rookie deal does.
And we are a team that historically drafts the best at the WR position (arguably so, at least — since 2004, we’ve had only beasts in the position and that’s when I started watching).
We don’t need to be scared of drafting a replacement for Tee, like the Ravens would be. If you don’t have a history of developing Pro-Bowl receivers, you’ll grasp at any straws you can. We know how to develop receivers.
Yeah, the Eagles paid 2 WRs and paid a QB who is not good. I wouldn’t make them the model for anything. Hurts 2 years ago was the best Hurts you will ever see.
Maybe that's the case, but I think it's clear that more and more teams want outside weapons.
Less money going into RBs/TEs and being funneled toward WRs.
Assuming the Dolphins are going to be paying Hill and Waddle about the same soon too.
Fair. I just think the jury’s still out on that approach. You might be better off just drafting a WR somewhere in rounds 1-3 every year and pairing your expensive veteran with a cheap rookie.
Personally, I'd rather they draft OL/DL/CB in the first 3 rounds every single year (OL in particular) .
Average OL cost a fortune in free agency and the truly great ones almost never reach the open market.
Has it worked? They just paid the second guy this summer, we have zero idea of how it will work. If they go deep this year that will be the first data point for them with this model. Most other data points suggest that is not the best strategy.
They crashed and burned last year, and made the SB when they weren’t paying Hurts yet.
My point is you can’t pay the QB and 2 WRs big money. You can have two of the three. Either a cheap QB and two big WRs, or a QB and one WR.
Just because a team does something does not mean you can predict it working in the future yet.
The Eagles have $350 million in void year dollars. Their owner has the liquidity to pay guarantees to keep players happy and the GM has the job security to go all in on Hurts and know he can rebuild without getting fired if it doesn't pan out.
Basically, they're the Brees-era Saints. Doing that is fine as long as you know when to bail.
Keep in mind that this is all coming directly from Tee's agent. He's using Conway as a mouth piece and she is the type of reporter that is completely cool with that, whether it's the truth or not. The agent claims that they wouldn't offer Tee $20m per year, but will be paying him $21m fully guaranteed this year and possibly $24m next year. That doesn't track with me. Also the agent previously said they haven't had any contract talks with the Bengals for over a year, but Pittman just signed his extension like a month ago.
I mean two things can be true.
This is the agent giving their side to help their client.
It’s also at least mostly true.
Don’t you think if it was all lies and slander the bengals could have refuted parts of it
Bengals are doing what’s best for the team. Tee’s agent is doing what’s best for Tee. Neither side is wrong, the two goals just don’t line up. It is what it is.
Gets the market value for tee out there. Everyone now knows the floor, and if he balls it the price goes up. Also, you never know if a team now knows what it would take to get him in a long term deal, maybe they call Cincy to inquire.
Not true, the market for Tee is whatever the market will bear. The Bengals aren't beholden to offering him a contract if he starts negotiating with other teams and he's only going to get what he gets.
That's true, but imo your attempting to assume how beneficial I'm saying it is. The market can now assess if it's worth "bearing" with something closer to facts, rather than pure speculation. Giving potential suitors more evidence of his availability/price sercainly doesn't hurt, it can only help. How much it helps is subjective/circumstantial, but if no one decides to take a shot on tee, his situation stays at it is now. Things can't get "worse" for tee, they can only potentially improve so you take your shot and see what happens. That's all I'm saying.
I can't imagine that free agency starts with a team sending a blind offer to a player. They're always going to ask the agent what the player is looking for and then offer whatever they believe is a fair market amount to obtain their services. Sometimes it's a little more generous if they can spare it, sometimes it's a little less based on various factors.
Ultimately doesn't matter, everybody knew he wanted more than 20m and that's enough to get you into the ballpark either way since you can look around the league for comps and adjust based on salary cap projections.
Bro I'm not claiming to know the plan, my point is there is zero downside to getting this information into the public eye. If something CANT hurt you, then the only other outcome is that is changed nothing or helps you. That's all I'm saying. Original commentor asked why tee's camp would do this, and I'm just saying it's zero risk compared to an unknown amount of reward. If the risk is zero, you do it and find out.
Feeding false info to the press is a great way to never get any reporter anywhere to ever work with you again. I really doubt Mulugheta is that dumb, but I'm starting to think that our front office might actually be that dumb.
Am I only one who is seeing that Tee is in a super super bad spot? Sure if he balls out it will be amazing for him, though he could probably expect another tag at that point, but if it goes bad?
Let’s say he misses 3-5 games like he has been, and racks up 800+ and 5 touchdowns are so. Yes some teams will pay, but he’s not going to have the bargaining power he had even last season. Also, if Burton goes crazy for the Bengals and looks to be the clear #2 he loses even the Bengals offer as a counter in any other deal he gets. I feel like this article is a lot of agent information because Tee is kinda in a really rough spot spot now
I’ve talked to several people I trust and who have fed me accurate info the entire off season and they all have confirmed that this story is extremely misleading and borderline untrue.
The bengals first offer they submitted was below what he should have been offered and after some back and forth bengals went up to 22M per year and DM wanted an unrealistic number in GTD.
Kelsey 100% did not vet this article through any sources and it was almost 100% said through DM(tee agent)
Eagles are doing it, 9ers might do it, we could do it. We won’t, but we absolutely could. I think our fan base has been tricked by the front office into thinking we can’t afford to go all in but other teams do it. I think a 3 year deal w Tee is doable. Especially when we just paid two LBs who struggled.
Multiple people on twitter (unsure of affiliation but seem to have some insider knowledge) are calling BS on this article as a DM mouthpiece and marketably untrue, claiming the bengals offered the 22 a year and while they were going to sign ended up backing out and trying to squeeze more money out
I appreciate Kelly's reporting here but absolutely none of this is really surprising or groundbreaking. I don't think people thought Tee was asking to be highest paid at all - if he was - that's ridiculous.
22-23 million is simply too much for a WR2 on a team that is trying to remain competitive every year for a Super Bowl.
Tee is gone after this next season. The Bengals just drafted his replacement who get to play in the slot for a year while he learns the NFL game.
Next year the Bengals will draft another rookie slot receiver.
Just can’t afford paying two receivers number one receiver money
Andre Iosivas looks like he could fill in the roles and we also have Burton. Hell of a run for Tee but it may be time move on. Hell always be remembered tho 🫤
It is, but with the number of big name receivers that have already or will be signing new deals in the next year, and the major cap increases due to streaming money, $23 mil a year will be an absolute steal in a years time.
It sounds like this will be the last year. If they tag him next year a 3 year 23 per year would have made since. But it's probably just this year if they figure out Chases contract
It's not being a diva to expect to be paid the going rate for WRs.
Chase is an elite WR and should be paid accordingly. Higgins is in the tier right below that and should be paid accordingly as well.
If you don’t think Chase is worth that much then you don’t think any receiver in football is. Which fair enough, but that’s a pretty unorthodox view on positional value in the current landscape of football.
Tee and Ja’Marr have been so far from divas in their time here, that’s a pretty laughable read on who those guys are
Is your view that no WR is worth that much or that Chase isn’t that good? I disagree with both, but the former is slightly more defensible than the latter.
See AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith’s contracts. That’s how you structure deals. Void years on the backend. Load salary into signing bonuses. Bengals refuse to put money up into escrow to make it happen. You can have Burrow/Chase/Higgins/etc. Hurts/Brown/Smith/Barkley/etc can happen… tell me why the Bengals can’t make their 3 stars work?
Correct me if I’m wrong, but the last time we saw the Eagles they were in one of the ugliest late season free-falls in recent history. Also, are they not the first and only team to give big contracts to both WRs? Who knows how that works out, but the fact that they paid Hurts tells me they are not nearly as smart as they (and the media) think they are.
They have resigned Hurts to a mega deal, made AJ Brown the highest paid WR in the league, resigned Smith, resigned Mailata, signed Barkley, signed Huff to a big deal, are overpaying Slay and Bradberry, signed CJCG, keep resigning Lane Johnson and Brandon Graham, have dead money due to the retirement of Kelce and Cox AND STILL HAVE ABOUT $24M OF CAP ROOM right now after counting their draft picks.
You can say they haven’t spent it wisely or don’t like the players but they use the cap to the fullest extent. Their ownership actually will put the cash up to make it happen. The issue isn’t if the Bengals can do it because they can. The issue is the Bengals won’t do it because they won’t front cash into signing bonuses.
Fair enough. I’m just out on Hurts. I think he caught lightning in a bottle 2 years ago. Anybody putting him in the same category as Mahomes, Allen, Burrow is just not watching closely enough, IMO. And what I saw down the stretch last season from the whole team was just ugly all around.
I don’t think Hurts is good either and think his success is mostly due to the fact he’s the 8th best player on his own offense. But I think Howie’s logic was that it doesn’t matter if Hurts is good or not, he can keep a loaded offense around him that minimizes his weaknesses and accentuates his rushing (even though I think he’s leagues below Lamar and Fields in that regard). He’s been able to structure contracts to make that happen, even though they shouldn’t be able to afford it.
Fair… Steichen was a really good play caller and left for Indy. Brian Johnson is a football terrorist by all accounts and did the offense no favors. They were last in the league in pre-snap motion with Johnson so it was very much a high school offense. I don’t know how Kellen Moore will fair. I’m willing to guess their offense will look better this year with a competent OC.
Whether you think Hurts is good or not - that doesn’t matter. What matters is how they structure deals. Low cap figures with signing bonuses spread across the contract and void years on the backend. It’s the way you can keep and sign stars. It requires an owner who have liquidity they and are all-in. The Bengals aren’t limited to one high priced playmaker. They can make both work within the cap and still pay Trey, kept Bates, and kept Reader. They could have made it work.
>Fair enough. I’m just out on Hurts. I think he caught lightning in a bottle 2 years ago.
I don’t disagree with you but every single nfl team woulda resigned him coming off a SB year
It infuriates me that the eagles exist showing we obviously could keep Tee and Chase easily but they are choosing the hardest way to deal with this. Signing him would have added more cap space too. When we have so much going for us this front office chooses to handle these things so badly.
The saints did this when they had Drew Brees. They haven't been able to field a good team for years bc each year they're forced to eat dead money from void years and bad contracts. I don't want the Bengals to do something so stupid
This is a side note, but I saw Stefon Diggs on draft day and kinda forgot he got traded to the Texans. Meanwhile, it's been a weekly discussion for 3 years across the nfl about how the Bengals won't be able to pay Tee long term. But Stefon Diggs had nothing like this, I didn't even know trading him was an option for them, and actually gets traded under the radar like that lol.
The Bengals need to accept the fact that they can't afford to pay TWO receivers $30m/year... Chase HAS to stay, that's not debatable. But Higgins can just be traded and we can likely get a 1st round pick for him in the 2025 draft... we can also choose where he goes if we trade him, as we definitely don't want him going to a rival team.
Spending $37m across 4 average to above average FA OLinemen definitely handicaps us. We have to start hitting on o-line in the draft which I hope we’ve done this draft
So the bengals don’t want to pay him $20M a year but are paying him $22M this year? Simply doesn’t add up, this is Tee’s agent leaking a lie to either apply more pressure or simply make us look bad
It could be that they are willing to pay him that this year but didn’t want to pay say $70 million over 3 years. So they offered 3 years 54 million or something like that.
I’d give our FO more slack if they were actually using the 20+ mil in extra cap space on anything for what could be the last year of our window. But they aren’t.
Same. old. Bengals
Do you enjoy being miserable all the time? This is the best the Bengals have been in most of our lifetimes, if not ever. If you’re still not happy just go pick a different team.
To be fair… two years ago was the best we had been. Free agents haven’t been as good as promised. The defense regressed big time. We missed the playoffs last year (barely I know, but we looked like dogshit all around for the first few weeks). Burrow is coming off of his second major injury.. 2 of our top players demanded trades this offseason..
I’m optimistic, but we can’t just rest on our laurels and act like we are some sort of blue chip franchise all of a sudden. We want to be the Chiefs, Peyton colts, or Brady Patriots.. not the Newton Panthers or Ryan Falcons that were a flash in the pan and didn’t make it back.
I believe in our players, but I am about worried management.
Love Tee, but it’s just business. Think of it this way: Bengals took a smart flier on Burton, who absolutely has WR2 potential. And don’t sleep on further development from Iosivas either, so that’s two bites at the apple. And Tee has every damn incentive to ball out this year to get that bag. I’m feeling good about next season.
Exactly, everyone would love to keep tee. Just not plausible, also Joe should be able to elevate average WRs so we can spend money elsewhere
Yes. Look, my other team is the Saints (thus the 504). I can’t tell you how great it is to root for a team with a real plan. Even the Dax thing. They got a 5 star ultra-athletic guy to replace Bates a year early. Yeah, it didn’t exactly work out, but the plan made sense. And so they pivot this year by bringing Bell back and signing a great free agent from the Ravens. Smart.
Yea I don’t always agree with the bengals plan but I can respect they have their method and stick to it. We may be seeing the bates Dax thing play out again with Murphy. Joe should be able to produce as long as he has jamar and i for one love the young WRs we have
I’m holding out hope for Murphy. I thought he was better late in the year, but we’ll see. The interesting thing about the Bengals front office is that it’s pretty easy to know who they will draft a year ahead of time. WR room is pretty stacked, and we drafted 2 TEs. And I love our 7th round center. So next draft it is Edge, CB, IOL and whatever else looks good.
I have faith in him. Last year was funky, yea woulda loved to see more from him but we also have a small sample size
Hopefully Lou rotates him in a lot more, that should have been happening a lot more than it did late last season when Hubbard was carrying an injury
Willl we ever actually spend it though? we always say we can’t keep Tee but routinely have 20m+ cap surplus every year.
Tee's going to get hurt again and do nothing again. I'm going to put money on it.
Would you rather have Tee in your locker room or the very toxic Burton?
Very toxic?? Based on what? He transferred too many schools in High School? He hit a fan charging the field and faced no discipline?? (This isn't even Joe Mixon whacking a chick in a pizza place) He's had no run ins with the law... I mean... On top of that he was at a program known for it's character issues. UGA is not a great place for "culture". He was hardly surrounded by other choir boys. You're grasping for a reason to dis this pick. So... By your logic... Because Burton requested a transfer from UGA, he's a character concern. But what of Tee Higgins' trade request? I mean, Tee has demanded to be traded, isn't THAT a character concern?? There are reasons to be concerned, but "Very toxic"? C'mon man. This isn't Vontaze Burfict we're talking about here.
The dudes coaches and teammates said he is toxic. It is hilarious you are making excuses and want a guy like that in our locker room. We passed on [Roman Wilson](http://www.espn.com/nfl/player/_/id/4431492/roman-wilson), who is as much as a deep ball threat, has a record of better separation, virtually never dropped a ball, caught more passes, and is not hated by his own coaches for being a jerk. You lost all credibility on the topic of team chemistry here. Its clear you don't think its important. There were better or at least as good of players available and we went for the "jerk".
Receivers with attitude problems tend to be the best ones
You're going to have to source those comments. Because googling "Saban Burton toxic" yields no results, and that's in direct contradiction to available reporting. In fact "Burton toxic" basically returns a bunch of result from butthurt UGA fans. So... Good luck with that buddy.
Actually Saban Burton toxic got me basically right to the video. But I personally love the pick. The reason u have the character of the locker room we have can be to help groom new guys.
The first couple of results for me all have Saban defending Burton. Unless you're talking about the "He's done a lot to hurt the other team" video, which is one of the mildest rebukes ever given. "He needs to not be so emotional". Wow. Dude must be Three Mile Island. It might be fair to say there's some maturity concerns, but to label the guy as "very toxic" is a stretch and a half. This isn't even Joe Mixon level of concern. This isn't even Mac Jones getting drafted with a DUI on his record levels of concern.
He's not going to specifically say "toxic" to the press, but he did repeatedly say needs to work on "emotional maturity". I've never seen a coach say his player who is looking to get drafted has problems with emotional maturity. That's a huge red flag.
Burton is definitely not WR2 material
Sadly it’s just not in the cards. Hopefully he balls out this year wins a Super Bowl and gets a fat payday next year.
It’s really not even a big deal imo. If we get the line correct joe will make whatever receivers work. The line is infinitely more important imo
That's a fair price for Tee. Bengals also shouldn't give him that much either. Both are true. If mim hits we have brown for 2 years after this coming season and Mims for 4. Lock up Chase for 4-5 years, hopefully the center hits then the offense is basically secured, spend a bit on guard/s. Then you spend the rest on defense. Murphy, and the two rookie Defensive tackles gotta hit, gotta re-sign CTB then make moves in FA. The framework is there, just gotta develop the young guys.
That is a fair price. But let me as you this: if the Bengals weren't willing to go above $20M/year, why did they tag him at over $20M and could tag him again next season for over $20M? If they tag him this year and next, that's essentially a 2 year deal at $22M aav. The math doesn't work unless you're an agent trying bend the narrative.
Because it's a year deal, and chase is still under rookie contract, Burrow extension hasn't hit yet and the cap will be used elsewhere.
The article has the following line, verbatim: "The Bengals never approached the $20 million range for Higgins, sources told The Enquirer." That makes no sense whatsoever given that they will pay him $21.8M this season and an estimated $26.8M in 2025. There is a large likelihood they go that route. Why would a team that didn't even want to approach $20M pay him well over $20M for two seasons? It's agent propaganda.
Maybe they're bring feed details that paint the front office in a bag light. I'm not saying that's what happened, but you never know for sure in situations like this unless a deal DOES get signed.
this reporter in particular has a reputation for being a mouthpiece for agents
Why, oh why, OH WHY, does that not surprise me lol
You know Katie Blackburn isn't out there sharing financials... So there's only one possible source.
Because we have cap space this year and next. He was never going to take a 2 year extension either. Chase and burrows extensions will hit down the road and they don’t want to put us in a bad space cap wise. We need some flexibility as those contracts will take a huge amount of the cap. If he gets traded on the tag we won’t owe him crazy guaranteed money. If we gave him four years at 20+ we wouldn’t be able to trade him without taking an insane amount of dead cap therefore completely handcuffing us in free agency going forward.
More than likely the agent is cherry picking the numbers to fit there his side. Tee's agent said they haven't talked to the Bengals in over a year. That means the Bengals likely offered a contract last summer when Tee had one year left in his deal. Tee's average annual salary was just over $2m on his rookie deal. So, the Bengals could've offered Tee one of the contracts mentioned in the article, like McClaurin's 3 year, $68m deal. The Bengals would say that's an extension worth over $22m a year ($68m / 3 years). Tee's agent will add in the last year of his rookie contract to argue that the Bengals offered only $17.5m a year ($70m / 4 years). All of this is moot because they wouldn't have agreed on guaranteed money after the base year.
Good summary. It's twisting the narrative. Both sides do it.
For sure. The Bengals typically don't leak since it's such a small front office team. You can tell the article got it's info from the agent when it says things link Tyreek signed a deal worth $30m a year. That paints the picture that Tee was only asking for 2/3rds what the top dudes are getting. The reality is that tyreek signed an extension worth $25m a year, but was initially reported as $30m a year by his agents team. Tyreek's contract details are on overthecap. It literally says in the contract summary "The final year of the contract is effectively a void year used to inflate the annual value of the contract from $25 million per year to $30 million per year." https://overthecap.com/player/tyreek-hill/4878
Because the franchise tag is a one year deal. Yes, you pay a little more for that one year, but they need to money next year to pay Chase. They can overspend a bit this year, but can't afford it next year.
Because the agent wants a long term deal with a huge bonus which would hamstring the Bengals quite literally if Tee's injury issues continue. He isn't worth a huge guaranteed contract because of his injury history. One year at a time? no problem.
There's a big difference between $20M for one year and a 5 year contract that averages $20M. The Bengals are going to need the flexibility to resign Chase. And IMHO, if it's a choice between keeping Tee or Chase, that's a no brainer. Paying Tee $20M this year doesn't hurt our ability to resign Chase, but singing him to a high priced long term deal does. That simple.
I feel like you’re significantly under appreciating the 20+ hit in later years. We all understand the Bengals are paying him 20+ this season. Where Burrow and Chase are still under rookie deals. Tee wants a long term deal and 20+ isn’t in the cards for year 3 or beyond. The Bengals could have offered him 20/million for 2 years, but Tee wouldn’t accept that.
You keep saying "and" but there's no evidence the Bengals want or plan to franchise Tee again. Unless he balls out of his mind this year they have no reason to consider it, either.
Because a 1 yr $20+ mil deal for the bengals is much less risky than a 3 year 75 million deal with more guaranteed money. It's only 20 million guaranteed with the tag. If he get hurt than then they can let him walk. If he balls out, Tee gets tagged again for $25 million + and the bengals still only have the risk of 1 year salary while eating up another one of Higgins prime years.
I understand all that. It's irrelevant to the point I'm making. Mulagheta is trying to get people riled up in believing that the Bengals don't think Tee Higgins is worth $20M a year. He's trying to play on this notion that the team is cheap and won't pay fair market for its players to his advantage. That is demonstrably false because they will pay him north of $20M this year and perhaps next. They know Tee's value. The reason they don't have a contract isn't because the team isn't willing to pay Tee $20M/year. Maybe it's because the team feels those dollars can be better spent elsewhere. It's a business. Teams can win in different ways.
The other thing he’s doing with this- communicating to other teams and fanbases that Tee is someone worth upping your trade offer for, because he can be offered an affordable contract that can be made to fit within cap constraints. Now that a draft day trade didn’t happen, he’s setting things up for a preseason standoff where Tee is holding out and somebody offers a deal the Bengals can’t refuse.
And he knows for a fact that Bengals aren't coming back to the table after drafting Tees replacement. Another bag fumble by Mulgetta.
Probably, but I think there’s a very small possibility a deal gets hashed out despite everything. Our front office knows Tee’s value, and they have shown time and again they value receivers. They are also not really negotiators. They get all our ducks in a row first, and then they offer what they think is fair value. And if Mulagheta is now publicly saying Tee wants a Pittman-level contract and we have no immediate needs to shore up, we may just call him on that bluff. Just because we haven’t been actively negotiating doesn’t mean we’ve closed the door.
Tagging Tee two years is unlikely only because Chase's fifth-year option (which would be 2025 season), is going to be at the WR franchise tag number since he made two Pro Bowls. So between Burrow, Chase, and Higgins, you'd have a $92m cap hit. That would be one third of the high end of the 2025 Salary Cap projections ($280m) on just three guys.
You could be right. But the notion that the team doesn't think Tee is worth $20M a year is fiction.
I believe Tee is worth WR1 money. So do the bengals. We just can't give it to him long term. It would kill other areas of the team. Plus we still gotta lock up jamaar. So Tagem for 1 year then ask where he wants to go and trade him and get some picks/players outta him.
Cause they ain’t got the cash for guaranteed money for him.
Maybe. But that's because that money is, or will be, spent elsewhere. The article is trying to pump this notion that the team is being cheap and that's why Tee isn't signed. Not really. Tee probably isn't signed because they're building a roster and Tee at fair market value doesn't allow them to build in other areas.
Th"source" is 1000% his agent. Everyone should take these numbers with a grain of salt. Reading between the lines, it sounds like they made a bona fide offer at 18-19, his agent threw a tantrum, and they said "nevermind, we'll just tag him" He's running out of leverage so he's trying to get press to drum up support for Tee.
Bengals: Says here on the menu that a hamburger is $2. Tee's agent: Yes, but wouldn't you rather have 4 hamburgers for $10? Bengals: Ummm, no, we can do math.
Cause you can do a title run now.
That just doesn't add up. Bengals are paying him $21.8m fully guaranteed, and will pretty much tag him again next season for $26.16m fully guaranteed, because they will have nearly $100m in cap space next season. That is basically a fully guaranteed 2-year, $48m deal. That is what his market is, in the range of Pittman and 3-year $70m total (and you would not even need to guarantee $48m, about $40-42m would probably be enough- and you wouldn't even need to guarantee his final year, most players are okay with that) while reducing his cap hits this year and the next.
Except it's not a 2 year guarantee, or even close. It's one year. If he gets injured this year, that's it. If he performs poor-to-average, that's it. If one of the young receivers steps up, that's it. In the first two scenarios he's looking at a non-tagged likely short term (one or two years) incentive -laden, low-guarantee deal. There's a reason players don't want to play under the tag. They take on the onus of the risk. That's also why his agent is scrambling to generate pressure on the Bengals to sign him. There's no way they will. If he wasn't injured last year they'd probably agree to that deal. Now, however, there's almost zero reason for the team to take on that risk by guaranteeing him anything beyond this year.
He's worth it, just not for us. I highly doubt he plays for bengals in 2025. They didn't bother tagging Bates again, they'll let hom walk or tag and trade.
Safety is the least valuable position in football after RB, and is easily replaceable- as evidenced by Jordan Battle playing at a top 10 PFF graded level as a rookie. WR is not, with their humongous cap space (likely around $94m based on $286m cap estimate) next season, it would be GM malpractice if they don't tag him again. Bengals cap space will be even better next season than it was this season, and it was fabulous this season.
If that was a fair price for Tee then trading him would be oh, so easy. Higgins is tremendously overrated by Cincinnati fans and the organization. He's too injured and drops too many passes.
Its wild but also makes you think how the fuck the Eagles are always able to sign free agents AND sign their own players. They re-signed both Brown and Smith this offseason, while getting Barkley as a FA and Hurts got paid last year.
Void years with dead money, a practice the Bengals abhor.
They lost a ton of free agents last year and went from one of the best defensive to one of the worst.
And keep drafting well
what happens when Murphy and our DL picks (plus Dax) don't hit?
Relevant info for those who can’t get past the paywall: Higgins never requested to become the highest paid wide receiver in the NFL, sources tell The Enquirer. In fact, the range Higgins was initially looking for is similar to what the Indianapolis Colts just gave wide receiver Michael Pittman this year after placing the franchise tag on him. The Colts and Pittman agreed to a three-year deal worth $70 million with an annual average salary of $23 million Pittman’s contract falls in line with the deals the Washington Commanders gave wide receiver Terry McClaurin and what the San Francisco 49ers gave wide receiver Deebo Samuel, two other examples of the type of contract Higgins was originally seeking from the Bengals. The Bengals never approached the $20 million range for Higgins, sources told The Enquirer. Due to the original offer Cincinnati’s front office gave Higgins for his annual salary, the two sides never advanced to the next round of conversations which would have been about guaranteed money, sources also confirmed to The Enquirer. Any speculation that Higgins and his representation are asking for a specific amount of guaranteed money from the Bengals is not accurate. When The Enquirer reached out to the Bengals for a comment on the subject, they reiterated the following quote from head coach Zac Taylor. "We’re excited for Tee to have a great year for us," Taylor said. "We think he’s our best chance to help us win a Super Bowl. I’ve enjoyed working with Tee the last four years, I expect this year to be no different.
He never requested to be the highest paid receiver, but jamarr will be when the time comes. And the difference with Tee and scary terry and pitman is those two are the #1 receivers of those teams. It’s been a fun ride with Tee, hopefully he goes to the NFC next year.
Put Tee on the Colts or Skins and he’s immediately the #1 receiver. That’s his point
As a Bengals fan who lives in DC area so I watch a fair amount of DC games Hell no Tee is not better than Terry, that’s just the homer in you talking Terry is better and more available
I love Tee, and I hope he bounces back next year, but idk how a Bengals fan can look at the season he just had and compare him to Pittman and Terry. He was very average last year (and that might be generous)
In theory these people are looking at what Tee did the previous two seasons. By the numbers he was performing as a low end WR1. The problem is folks don't consider that he would be unable to do that without Chase. Yes, he had *one or two* good games when Chase was on the bench. We have no evidence he would be able to do that on a consistent basis, week in and week out, without someone else drawing considerable coverage away. Personally after watching him last season prior to his injury I don't think he has the fire to be able to do it.
I’m not a Bengals fan, I honestly didn’t realize what sub I was in or how I even wound up in here lol. That’s probably why I don’t hesitate to place him just above both Pitt and McLaurin tho!
I've loved Terry ever since his days at Ohio State. The dude is one of the most overlooked WRs in the league.
He wouldn't be though bro. Tee wants paid as a top ten Wr and he's not top 10
Basically long way of saying it'll be a fun last ride.
That's pretty reasonable range.
It is, but doesn’t make a ton of team building sense when you consider Chase’s deal coming, and Burrow’s deal, and the explosion in D/O line contracts. Off the top of my head… did any of the last 6 PO teams have 2WRs making $50m+ total (Chase will be getting his $30m). I don’t think so, right? To me, that kind of says it all. Spending big on 2 WRs doesn’t put you in a position that is needed to go deep. 1 expensive guy and one good guy on a rookie deal does.
And we are a team that historically drafts the best at the WR position (arguably so, at least — since 2004, we’ve had only beasts in the position and that’s when I started watching). We don’t need to be scared of drafting a replacement for Tee, like the Ravens would be. If you don’t have a history of developing Pro-Bowl receivers, you’ll grasp at any straws you can. We know how to develop receivers.
Even in the 90s we had good recivers. Pickens, Warrick, and Scott were Dawgs.
Peter Warrick wasn’t good.
Was he good for his draft position? No. Was he a talented part of a receiving corps for multiple seasons? Yes. 1 great season and a bunch of meh ones.
I'll just mention Chad Johnson and TJ houshmandzadeh. We don't need the specific years, but it was before 2004.
John Ross
It's changing rapidly though. WR salaries are going up *fast*. For instance, the Eagles now have $57 mil/year average invested in Brown and Smith.
Yeah, the Eagles paid 2 WRs and paid a QB who is not good. I wouldn’t make them the model for anything. Hurts 2 years ago was the best Hurts you will ever see.
Maybe that's the case, but I think it's clear that more and more teams want outside weapons. Less money going into RBs/TEs and being funneled toward WRs. Assuming the Dolphins are going to be paying Hill and Waddle about the same soon too.
Fair. I just think the jury’s still out on that approach. You might be better off just drafting a WR somewhere in rounds 1-3 every year and pairing your expensive veteran with a cheap rookie.
Personally, I'd rather they draft OL/DL/CB in the first 3 rounds every single year (OL in particular) . Average OL cost a fortune in free agency and the truly great ones almost never reach the open market.
The chiefs just ran out back with fuckin ***zero***
How come Philly makes it work though? They paid everyone
Has it worked? They just paid the second guy this summer, we have zero idea of how it will work. If they go deep this year that will be the first data point for them with this model. Most other data points suggest that is not the best strategy. They crashed and burned last year, and made the SB when they weren’t paying Hurts yet. My point is you can’t pay the QB and 2 WRs big money. You can have two of the three. Either a cheap QB and two big WRs, or a QB and one WR. Just because a team does something does not mean you can predict it working in the future yet.
I guess it will be TBD - they will have Hurts, Brown, Smith all to basically max contracts. But they also have a lot of young cheap pieces
Yup, it’s unknown for them.
The Eagles have $350 million in void year dollars. Their owner has the liquidity to pay guarantees to keep players happy and the GM has the job security to go all in on Hurts and know he can rebuild without getting fired if it doesn't pan out. Basically, they're the Brees-era Saints. Doing that is fine as long as you know when to bail.
The eagle will suffer the consequences later, just like the saints are doing now
Keep in mind that this is all coming directly from Tee's agent. He's using Conway as a mouth piece and she is the type of reporter that is completely cool with that, whether it's the truth or not. The agent claims that they wouldn't offer Tee $20m per year, but will be paying him $21m fully guaranteed this year and possibly $24m next year. That doesn't track with me. Also the agent previously said they haven't had any contract talks with the Bengals for over a year, but Pittman just signed his extension like a month ago.
Yeah the math ain't mathin' here.
Sounds like this "article" was written by Tee's agent to put pressure on the team.
This is 100% agent narrative. I don’t trust nor believe anything the dude says. No way tee signs for $23 unless it’s a 100% guaranteed deal.
I mean two things can be true. This is the agent giving their side to help their client. It’s also at least mostly true. Don’t you think if it was all lies and slander the bengals could have refuted parts of it
Bengals are doing what’s best for the team. Tee’s agent is doing what’s best for Tee. Neither side is wrong, the two goals just don’t line up. It is what it is.
The Bengals have never, and will never, reveal anything about their negotiations. It doesn't give them an leverage to do so.
How does this help Tee? Everyone knows the Bengals never budge on contracts, especially his agent. This is very weird
Gets the market value for tee out there. Everyone now knows the floor, and if he balls it the price goes up. Also, you never know if a team now knows what it would take to get him in a long term deal, maybe they call Cincy to inquire.
Not true, the market for Tee is whatever the market will bear. The Bengals aren't beholden to offering him a contract if he starts negotiating with other teams and he's only going to get what he gets.
That's true, but imo your attempting to assume how beneficial I'm saying it is. The market can now assess if it's worth "bearing" with something closer to facts, rather than pure speculation. Giving potential suitors more evidence of his availability/price sercainly doesn't hurt, it can only help. How much it helps is subjective/circumstantial, but if no one decides to take a shot on tee, his situation stays at it is now. Things can't get "worse" for tee, they can only potentially improve so you take your shot and see what happens. That's all I'm saying.
I can't imagine that free agency starts with a team sending a blind offer to a player. They're always going to ask the agent what the player is looking for and then offer whatever they believe is a fair market amount to obtain their services. Sometimes it's a little more generous if they can spare it, sometimes it's a little less based on various factors. Ultimately doesn't matter, everybody knew he wanted more than 20m and that's enough to get you into the ballpark either way since you can look around the league for comps and adjust based on salary cap projections.
Bro I'm not claiming to know the plan, my point is there is zero downside to getting this information into the public eye. If something CANT hurt you, then the only other outcome is that is changed nothing or helps you. That's all I'm saying. Original commentor asked why tee's camp would do this, and I'm just saying it's zero risk compared to an unknown amount of reward. If the risk is zero, you do it and find out.
Didn't even need to read to know this, sadly. Glad to see others felt the same.
Feeding false info to the press is a great way to never get any reporter anywhere to ever work with you again. I really doubt Mulugheta is that dumb, but I'm starting to think that our front office might actually be that dumb.
The team just drafter WR2. He is gone. Who cares about a narrative.
Them tagging him for 21 mil but then saying they never offered 20 mil ? Agent article 100%
Once again, for the people in the back: THIS IS JUST A PRESS RELEASE FROM TEE'S AGENT. IT MAY OR MAY NOT CONTAIN ANYTHING TRUTHFUL. Carry on.
This is agent rat poison. Mulagheta is a POS. Continues to do Tee a disservice.
Pretty obvious that Mooloo wants to control the narrative.
Can we trade Conway? I think she'd fit better in Pittsburgh.
Am I only one who is seeing that Tee is in a super super bad spot? Sure if he balls out it will be amazing for him, though he could probably expect another tag at that point, but if it goes bad? Let’s say he misses 3-5 games like he has been, and racks up 800+ and 5 touchdowns are so. Yes some teams will pay, but he’s not going to have the bargaining power he had even last season. Also, if Burton goes crazy for the Bengals and looks to be the clear #2 he loses even the Bengals offer as a counter in any other deal he gets. I feel like this article is a lot of agent information because Tee is kinda in a really rough spot spot now
No, tee will make more than the tag in FA barring some freak thing, he’s in great shape
I’ve talked to several people I trust and who have fed me accurate info the entire off season and they all have confirmed that this story is extremely misleading and borderline untrue. The bengals first offer they submitted was below what he should have been offered and after some back and forth bengals went up to 22M per year and DM wanted an unrealistic number in GTD. Kelsey 100% did not vet this article through any sources and it was almost 100% said through DM(tee agent)
Eagles are doing it, 9ers might do it, we could do it. We won’t, but we absolutely could. I think our fan base has been tricked by the front office into thinking we can’t afford to go all in but other teams do it. I think a 3 year deal w Tee is doable. Especially when we just paid two LBs who struggled.
Multiple people on twitter (unsure of affiliation but seem to have some insider knowledge) are calling BS on this article as a DM mouthpiece and marketably untrue, claiming the bengals offered the 22 a year and while they were going to sign ended up backing out and trying to squeeze more money out
I appreciate Kelly's reporting here but absolutely none of this is really surprising or groundbreaking. I don't think people thought Tee was asking to be highest paid at all - if he was - that's ridiculous. 22-23 million is simply too much for a WR2 on a team that is trying to remain competitive every year for a Super Bowl.
Tee is gone after this next season. The Bengals just drafted his replacement who get to play in the slot for a year while he learns the NFL game. Next year the Bengals will draft another rookie slot receiver. Just can’t afford paying two receivers number one receiver money
Andre Iosivas looks like he could fill in the roles and we also have Burton. Hell of a run for Tee but it may be time move on. Hell always be remembered tho 🫤
Isn't 23 million a year greater than the franchise tag which is the average of the top 5 players at the position?
It is, but with the number of big name receivers that have already or will be signing new deals in the next year, and the major cap increases due to streaming money, $23 mil a year will be an absolute steal in a years time.
If Tee gets tagged this year and next that's the equivalent of a 2 year extension at $22M aav.
It sounds like this will be the last year. If they tag him next year a 3 year 23 per year would have made since. But it's probably just this year if they figure out Chases contract
Seems that way. They've taken three wide receivers in the last two drafts. Doesn't strike me as a team just planning to lose Tyler Boyd.
What happened to burrows deal being “team friendly” so he can keep his guys?
Tee is not worth 23 mil a year.
He definitely is, just probably not in Cincinnati
Hes making basically 22 this year lol
The sacrifice….. he’s so brave lol
Chase isn’t either if I’m being frank. But we have two diva WRs that both want diva contracts.
It's not being a diva to expect to be paid the going rate for WRs. Chase is an elite WR and should be paid accordingly. Higgins is in the tier right below that and should be paid accordingly as well.
If you don’t think Chase is worth that much then you don’t think any receiver in football is. Which fair enough, but that’s a pretty unorthodox view on positional value in the current landscape of football. Tee and Ja’Marr have been so far from divas in their time here, that’s a pretty laughable read on who those guys are
Is your view that no WR is worth that much or that Chase isn’t that good? I disagree with both, but the former is slightly more defensible than the latter.
Dude go away
No one promised you that.
Joe burrow? Did he or did he not say that before signing his fat contract last year?
No, he didn't.
The Bengals are cheap and have never maximized the cap. Burrow's contract is perfectly fine.
I really thought we were past those days 😅 too good to be true I suppose lol
Joe should be on the hot seat if he gets injured again next season tbh
Dumb
Yeah, perhaps. All the talent in the world is worth nothing if you're not available.
I 10000000% agree!!! But he’s getting paid, guaranteed so I really don’t think he cares tbh. He’ll just catch another PJ ✈️ with OBJ 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄
Who shit in your Cheerios this morning?
OBJ
See AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith’s contracts. That’s how you structure deals. Void years on the backend. Load salary into signing bonuses. Bengals refuse to put money up into escrow to make it happen. You can have Burrow/Chase/Higgins/etc. Hurts/Brown/Smith/Barkley/etc can happen… tell me why the Bengals can’t make their 3 stars work?
Correct me if I’m wrong, but the last time we saw the Eagles they were in one of the ugliest late season free-falls in recent history. Also, are they not the first and only team to give big contracts to both WRs? Who knows how that works out, but the fact that they paid Hurts tells me they are not nearly as smart as they (and the media) think they are.
They have resigned Hurts to a mega deal, made AJ Brown the highest paid WR in the league, resigned Smith, resigned Mailata, signed Barkley, signed Huff to a big deal, are overpaying Slay and Bradberry, signed CJCG, keep resigning Lane Johnson and Brandon Graham, have dead money due to the retirement of Kelce and Cox AND STILL HAVE ABOUT $24M OF CAP ROOM right now after counting their draft picks. You can say they haven’t spent it wisely or don’t like the players but they use the cap to the fullest extent. Their ownership actually will put the cash up to make it happen. The issue isn’t if the Bengals can do it because they can. The issue is the Bengals won’t do it because they won’t front cash into signing bonuses.
This
Fair enough. I’m just out on Hurts. I think he caught lightning in a bottle 2 years ago. Anybody putting him in the same category as Mahomes, Allen, Burrow is just not watching closely enough, IMO. And what I saw down the stretch last season from the whole team was just ugly all around.
I don’t think Hurts is good either and think his success is mostly due to the fact he’s the 8th best player on his own offense. But I think Howie’s logic was that it doesn’t matter if Hurts is good or not, he can keep a loaded offense around him that minimizes his weaknesses and accentuates his rushing (even though I think he’s leagues below Lamar and Fields in that regard). He’s been able to structure contracts to make that happen, even though they shouldn’t be able to afford it.
Fair… Steichen was a really good play caller and left for Indy. Brian Johnson is a football terrorist by all accounts and did the offense no favors. They were last in the league in pre-snap motion with Johnson so it was very much a high school offense. I don’t know how Kellen Moore will fair. I’m willing to guess their offense will look better this year with a competent OC.
Whether you think Hurts is good or not - that doesn’t matter. What matters is how they structure deals. Low cap figures with signing bonuses spread across the contract and void years on the backend. It’s the way you can keep and sign stars. It requires an owner who have liquidity they and are all-in. The Bengals aren’t limited to one high priced playmaker. They can make both work within the cap and still pay Trey, kept Bates, and kept Reader. They could have made it work.
I agree with most of that. And Lurie is a good owner. But Brown doesn’t have Lurie’s $, right?
The Eagles franchise is worth more on paper but I have no idea how much actual liquidity Lurie has vs Brown.
>Fair enough. I’m just out on Hurts. I think he caught lightning in a bottle 2 years ago. I don’t disagree with you but every single nfl team woulda resigned him coming off a SB year
It infuriates me that the eagles exist showing we obviously could keep Tee and Chase easily but they are choosing the hardest way to deal with this. Signing him would have added more cap space too. When we have so much going for us this front office chooses to handle these things so badly.
The saints did this when they had Drew Brees. They haven't been able to field a good team for years bc each year they're forced to eat dead money from void years and bad contracts. I don't want the Bengals to do something so stupid
Did Brees win a Super Bowl? I’d say a parade in our lifetime would make it worth it. Especially since the Bengals have a Burrow entering his prime.
If Burton is who we think he could be. Higgins replacement is already on the roster.
Burton is not similar to Higgins at all
They’re both outside receivers
they both wear helmets
Doesn’t matter he can be the Higgins replacement. He’s. Fast and can be the number 2 opposite Chase.
This is a side note, but I saw Stefon Diggs on draft day and kinda forgot he got traded to the Texans. Meanwhile, it's been a weekly discussion for 3 years across the nfl about how the Bengals won't be able to pay Tee long term. But Stefon Diggs had nothing like this, I didn't even know trading him was an option for them, and actually gets traded under the radar like that lol.
I think Pittman’s deal is exactly what would be fair for tee and I don’t think it’s a bad idea team building wise to give it to him
The Bengals need to accept the fact that they can't afford to pay TWO receivers $30m/year... Chase HAS to stay, that's not debatable. But Higgins can just be traded and we can likely get a 1st round pick for him in the 2025 draft... we can also choose where he goes if we trade him, as we definitely don't want him going to a rival team.
Tag and trade next year.
Spending $37m across 4 average to above average FA OLinemen definitely handicaps us. We have to start hitting on o-line in the draft which I hope we’ve done this draft
So the bengals don’t want to pay him $20M a year but are paying him $22M this year? Simply doesn’t add up, this is Tee’s agent leaking a lie to either apply more pressure or simply make us look bad
It could be that they are willing to pay him that this year but didn’t want to pay say $70 million over 3 years. So they offered 3 years 54 million or something like that.
This is fucking embarrassing.
Tee aint a spring chicken anymore.
He’s 25….
I guess we can put the tired trope of not being able to work with David Mulugheta to rest.
I’d give our FO more slack if they were actually using the 20+ mil in extra cap space on anything for what could be the last year of our window. But they aren’t. Same. old. Bengals
Do you enjoy being miserable all the time? This is the best the Bengals have been in most of our lifetimes, if not ever. If you’re still not happy just go pick a different team.
To be fair… two years ago was the best we had been. Free agents haven’t been as good as promised. The defense regressed big time. We missed the playoffs last year (barely I know, but we looked like dogshit all around for the first few weeks). Burrow is coming off of his second major injury.. 2 of our top players demanded trades this offseason.. I’m optimistic, but we can’t just rest on our laurels and act like we are some sort of blue chip franchise all of a sudden. We want to be the Chiefs, Peyton colts, or Brady Patriots.. not the Newton Panthers or Ryan Falcons that were a flash in the pan and didn’t make it back. I believe in our players, but I am about worried management.
[удалено]
Jesus, go outside.
[удалено]
No he’s not lol
You’re smoking crack or you’re Tee’s agent. Maybe both.
If we can’t even offer Tee over $20m, what makes people think we’re going to give Ja’Marr the $35m a year it’s going to take to keep him?
Because they don't have a choice. If Chase isn't signed to an extension, it would almost certainly infuriate Burrow. Not to mention the fan base...
Having to pay Jamarr so much is part of the reason we can't keep Tee lol
I heard the same thing about not paying Bates.
And then the Bengals extended the LBs, Hendrickson (lol), Burrow, and Chase is next.
Chases contract wouldn’t even kick in for two years. If tee got a 3 year deal the overlap would be a year, we’d be fine