Bengals franchise tag Tee Higgins

[Roundybout]

 

One high priced free agent off the market 

[Ya Digg?]

Would’ve been more surprising if they didn’t franchise tag him. Most likely will be gone after next season but they get to keep him for one more year before their big salaries get close to kicking in. It will be really interesting to see how much Chase gets when he signs his new deal 

[WhitewalkerInPhilly]

Jesus I can't imagine what their cap looks like when they have to pay Chase as well. 

[Don Otreply]

7 minutes ago, Roundybout said:

 

One high priced free agent off the market 

He is so over rated…, hell  even Davis is ranked higher than this guy in FAs getting open thread, who would want such a loser, right? 
 

 

am I doing this right? 

[Aussie Joe]

3 minutes ago, WhitewalkerInPhilly said:

Jesus I can't imagine what their cap looks like when they have to pay Chase as well. 

Probably looks better than ours does now …

[Coastie]

Yeah, no real surprise. Who else is more important to the team they have control over.

Edited February 24 by Coastie

[BillsFanForever19]

This is my shocked face. I said it immediately in that ridiculous thread about Buffalo going after him.

 

13 minutes ago, WhitewalkerInPhilly said:

Jesus I can't imagine what their cap looks like when they have to pay Chase as well. 

 

Don't have to worry about that for two more years. Even if they extend Chase now, surely the next two years will remain the same.

Edited February 24 by BillsFanForever19

[Aussie Joe]

2 minutes ago, BillsFanForever19 said:

This is my shocked face.

 

 

Don't have to worry about that for two more years. Even if they extend him now, surely the next two years will remain the same.

And the cap is likely north of $300m come 2026

[Virgil]

I have to think this is a stall tactic until they can sign him and Chase to a long term deal.  However, paying Joe 50+ and Higgens/Chase 30+ per is insane to me.  

 

Yes, I'm assuming those will be the numbers on the receivers, but I can't imagine I'll be too far off.

 

Bengals have 74 mil in cap space, which is also insane to me.  Burrow won't really hit the books for another two years, but still.  110 mil for 3 guys.

Edited February 24 by Virgil

[BillsFanForever19]

Just now, Virgil said:

I have to think this is a stall tactic until they can sign him and Chase to a long term deal.  However, paying Joe 50+ and Higgens/Chase 30+ per is insane to me.  

 

Yes, I'm assuming those will be the numbers on the receivers, but I can't imagine I'll be too far off

 

Again though, Chase is under a Rookie deal for the next two years.

 

So maybe they front load it for a couple years and then lessen it in Year 3 and put an out in the contract after Year 3.

[CaptnCoke11]

1 minute ago, Virgil said:

I have to think this is a stall tactic until they can sign him and Chase to a long term deal.  However, paying Joe 50+ and Higgens/Chase 30+ per is insane to me.  

 

Yes, I'm assuming those will be the numbers on the receivers, but I can't imagine I'll be too far off

With the cap going way up and only expected to continue to climb going forward teams can afford this now 

[Mark Vader]

2 minutes ago, Virgil said:

I have to think this is a stall tactic until they can sign him and Chase to a long term deal.  However, paying Joe 50+ and Higgens/Chase 30+ per is insane to me.  

 

Yes, I'm assuming those will be the numbers on the receivers, but I can't imagine I'll be too far off

You're probably right. Although it won't matter much if the Bengals can't get better offensive linemen to protect Burrow.

 

Otherwise, he will go the way of David Carr.

[John from Riverside]

Good news for us takes one more team out of the first round wide receiver market

[FireChans]

10 minutes ago, John from Riverside said:

Good news for us takes one more team out of the first round wide receiver market

If the Bungles don’t get a long term deal done, I don’t think they are out of the first round market at all.

 

Smart teams would draft a WR before it becomes a big need.

Edited February 24 by FireChans

[BillsFanForever19]

18 minutes ago, John from Riverside said:

Good news for us takes one more team out of the first round wide receiver market

 

7 minutes ago, FireChans said:

If the Bungles don’t get a long term deal done, I don’t think they are out of the first round market at all.

 

Smart teams would draft a WR before it becomes a big need.

 

I don't think Cincinnati would have been using a 1st on WR - unless they lost BOTH Higgins and Boyd.

 

They have a suspect OL to begin with and will more likely than not (especially after Franchise Tagging Higgins) be losing their Left Tackle.

 

With Chase in house and retaining either Higgins or Boyd, maybe they'd take one in the Second to replace the other. But I'd suspect the 1st is going to Left Tackle.

[GunnerBill]

1 hour ago, BillsFanForever19 said:

 

Again though, Chase is under a Rookie deal for the next two years.

 

So maybe they front load it for a couple years and then lessen it in Year 3 and put an out in the contract after Year 3.

 

Yea but they are going to have to pay Chase this year. The elite guys want paying as soon as they come due now - after year 3. If they don't pay Chase expect it to get tense quite quickly. Now the way you do that normally is you give him a huge chunk of change as a bonus so that it doesn't make a big dent in the cap until after the rookie contract years are done. But Mike Brown is a cash to cap guy. He doesn't have deep pockets to start throwing a lot of money around up front and then just account for it on the cap over the long term. It just makes it tricky. 

 

I don't think this is the right play by the Bengals (and I have always liked Tee a lot) unless they are going to try the much talked about, rarely executed, tag and trade option turn that 3rd round comp pick into a 1st or high 2nd maybe?

[BillsFanForever19]

2 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

Yea but they are going to have to pay Chase this year. The elite guys want paying as soon as they come due now - after year 3. If they don't pay Chase expect it to get tense quite quickly. Now the way you do that normally is you give him a huge chunk of change as a bonus so that it doesn't make a big dent in the cap until after the rookie contract years are done. But Mike Brown is a cash to cap guy. He doesn't have deep pockets to start throwing a lot of money around up front and then just account for it on the cap over the long term. It just makes it tricky. 

 

I don't think this is the right play by the Bengals (and I have always liked Tee a lot) unless they are going to try the much talked about, rarely executed, tag and trade option turn that 3rd round comp pick into a 1st or high 2nd maybe?

 

I really don't think so.

 

The Bengals whole claim to fame is having a QB like Burrow with not 1, but 2 true #1 WR's. It's what got them to the Super Bowl over Kansas City 3 years ago. 

 

If you've got the money to keep that together, and they do, you do that. Take care of the Left Tackle in the Draft, where they'll be picking higher than usual thanks to their lost season without Burrow.

 

At 74 Million under the cap this year, there's absolutely no reason they can't keep them both. Even if it's expensive. 

[GunnerBill]

1 minute ago, BillsFanForever19 said:

 

I really don't think so.

 

The Bengals whole claim to fame is having a QB like Burrow with not 1, but 2 true #1 WR's. It's what got them to the Super Bowl over Kansas City 3 years ago. 

 

If you've got the money to keep that together, and they do, you do that. Take care of the Left Tackle in the Draft, where they'll be picking higher than usual thanks to their lost season without Burrow.

 

At 74 Million under the cap this year, there's absolutely no reason they can't keep them both. Even if it's expensive. 

 

It isn't this year that concerns me so much - they can definitely afford them this year. But Tee at c.$22m AAV and Chase at a market re-setting $32m (could even be more if JJ gets done first)... when you add that to Joe Burrow it makes it tight in future years, especially with an owner who wants to be cash to cap and doesn't necessarily have the means to keep writing those big bonus checks to restructure year after year. 

[BillsFanForever19]

23 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

It isn't this year that concerns me so much - they can definitely afford them this year. But Tee at c.$22m AAV and Chase at a market re-setting $32m (could even be more if JJ gets done first)... when you add that to Joe Burrow it makes it tight in future years, especially with an owner who wants to be cash to cap and doesn't necessarily have the means to keep writing those big bonus checks to restructure year after year. 

 

Just taking a look at Spotrac:

 

2024 - 72.4m under the cap

2025 - 177.7m under the cap

2026 - 376.6m under the cap

 

Granted, there's a large number of bodies that need to be replaced by 2026. But the amount of money they have over the next few seasons is more than enough to keep Chase and Higgins and still build their roster.

 

As I said when we talked about this before, teams don't let important pieces of their roster go unless they don't have a choice.

 

Higgins and Chase together is as important to that team as anything and they don't have to sacrifice either. So why would they?

Edited February 24 by BillsFanForever19

[947]

This mean Boyd is a goner. Cincy likely will be drafting a new slot WR, but that leaves another outside WR on the board for us.