NFL insider thinks Bengals could trade Tee Higgins before the new league year

There is a belief that the team signaled that Tee Higgins is available with how the team franchise tagged him.

The Cincinnati Bengals most intriguing story line from the national media’s perspective currently is whether Tee Higgins will in fact suit up for Cincinnati next season or be moved to another team.

It has been the source of plenty of speculation, but ESPN’s Dan Graziano has been hearing that the timing of the move sent a signal to the rest of the league:

A lot of people in Indy seemed to think the reason the Bengals franchised Tee Higgins as early as they did was so they could trade him. With a Ja’Marr Chase extension likely coming this offseason or next, Cincinnati might not be able to keep the band together around Joe Burrow much longer.

This idea of the early tag sending a signal to other teams that they’d like to move Higgins makes sense from a standpoint that whatever team trades for Higgins would like a long-term deal to be in place prior to the new league year on March 13th to help have a clearer idea of what their cap space would look like during free agency. It also would allow the Bengals to hunt for a potential replacement for Higgins or use the roughly $21 million cap space his departure would create on the full pool of free agents.

Until we start hearing some concrete stuff that the Bengals are actually talking to teams, it is hard to take any of this seriously. The Bengals have proved that they have no issue having players play on a franchise tag despite what could be a significant hit to the cap. In fact, Higgins on the franchise tag is still a pretty good value considering he’d be in line for what one would imagine could be just under a market resetting deal.

It is still worth noting that many around the league think this will happen sooner rather than later.