Current:Home > ScamsBengals to use franchise tag on wide receiver Tee Higgins-LoTradeCoin
Bengals to use franchise tag on wide receiver Tee Higgins
View Date:2024-12-23 19:25:15
The window for NFL franchise tags to be issued just opened Tuesday, but the first move has already been made.
The Cincinnati Bengals told wide receiver Tee Higgins they will use the tag on him, a person with knowledge of the situation told USA TODAY Sports' Tyler Dragon.
The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the team hadn't yet made it official.
NFL Media's Ian Rapoport first reported the news Friday.
The move would keep Higgins off the open market when free agency officially begins at the start of the new league year on March 13.
All things Bengals: Latest Cincinnati Bengals news, schedule, roster, stats, injury updates and more.
If Higgins does not strike a long-term deal and remains on the franchise tag, he would earn $21.8 million next season.
Higgins had ranked as one of the best potential free agents this offseason, coming in at No. 3 on USA TODAY Sports' pre-tag breakdown.
Higgins, 25, has emerged as one of the NFL's top No. 2 receivers since the Clemson product was selected by the Bengals in the second round of the 2020 draft. Working in tandem with top target Ja'Marr Chase, he eclipsed 1,000 yards in both 2021 and 2022. Last season, however, he played in just 12 games while dealing with a fractured rib and a hamstring injury late in the year.
After the end of the season, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow made it clear he wanted Higgins back in some form for at least 2024.
“I know Tee wants to be here,” Burrow said in January. “Tee knows we want him here. There’s not much to say in that aspect. Everybody’s expectations is Tee is going to be back.
"We’ll see. The offseason plays out in crazy ways you don’t expect. I’d love to have Tee back and I know he wants to be back.”
Teams have until March 5 to reach decisions on the franchise tag.
Contributing: Tyler Dragon
veryGood! (8)
Related
- 13 Skincare Gifts Under $50 That Are Actually Worth It
- U.S. appeals court preserves partial access to abortion pill, but with tighter rules
- Sen. Amy Klobuchar calls Texas judge's abortion pill ruling 'shocking'
- U.S. appeals court preserves partial access to abortion pill, but with tighter rules
- The Surreal Life’s Kim Zolciak Fuels Dating Rumors With Costar Chet Hanks After Kroy Biermann Split
- Attacks on Brazil's schools — often by former students — spur a search for solutions
- Collapsed section of Interstate 95 to reopen in 2 weeks, Gov. Josh Shapiro says
- A Young Farmer Confronts Climate Change—and a Pandemic
- Prosecutors say some erroneous evidence was given jurors at ex-Sen. Bob Menendez’s bribery trial
- Tony Bennett had 'a song in his heart,' his friend and author Mitch Albom says
Ranking
- Why have wildfires been erupting across the East Coast this fall?
- What we know about the Indiana industrial fire that's forced residents to evacuate
- This Week in Clean Economy: Manufacturing Job Surge Seen for East Coast Offshore Wind
- Trump Administration OK’s Its First Arctic Offshore Drilling Plan
- Florida education officials report hundreds of books pulled from school libraries
- Why do some people get UTIs over and over? A new report holds clues
- Greening of Building Sector on Track to Deliver Trillions in Savings by 2030
- How to Get Rid of a Pimple Fast: 10 Holy Grail Solutions That Work in Hours
Recommendation
-
Channing Tatum Drops Shirtless Selfie After Zoë Kravitz Breakup
-
All the Bombshell Revelations in The Secrets of Hillsong
-
Today's election could weaken conservatives' long-held advantage in Wisconsin
-
Shootings on Juneteenth weekend leave at least 12 dead, more than 100 injured
-
Wreck of Navy destroyer USS Edsall known as 'the dancing mouse' found 80 years after sinking
-
4 tips for saying goodbye to someone you love
-
Oceans Are Melting Glaciers from Below Much Faster than Predicted, Study Finds
-
Transcript: Sen. Richard Blumenthal on Face the Nation, June 18, 2023