Panthers an unlikely partner for Tee Higgins trade: Will the Patriots come calling?

Where will Tee Higgins be when the 2024 NFL season kicks off?

The Cincinnati Bengals are stuck in a situation currently with wide receiver Tee Higgins and his representatives. Higgins has requested a trade based on the report that there haven’t been attempts at long-term contract talks since before last season.

The question then becomes if the Bengals will attempt to reengage in those talks after the wide receiver market has solidified, stand their ground, and make Higgins play on the franchise tag, or trade the talented wide receiver.

Well, if they go with the latter, then it sounds like one potential partner may be out for now in the Carolina Panthers.

Higgins will only be 25 years old next season, but the team may be looking at the ultra-slow plan of having even younger players develop. You’d think having a wide receiver entering his prime would be something they’d at least explore, but that doesn’t seem to be the case for now.

As far as potential partners go, it sounds like the New England Patriots are attempting to land Calvin Ridley to help accomplish the team’s goal of becoming more explosive. However, the receiver prefers to land back as a Jacksonville Jaguar.

In the event that happens, Patriots reporter Chad Graf expects the team to check in on Higgins and other potential trade targets.

New head coach Jerrod Mayo and offensive coordinator Eliot Wolf made it a point at the NFL Scouting Combine to find someone who will create matchup issues for opposing defenses.

“In terms of physical skills, we need to weaponize the offense,” Wolf said via Mass Live. “We need to be faster and more explosive on defense. Height, weight, speed, playmaking ability – there will definitely be an emphasis on those things.”

“It just looks like putting people on the offensive side of the ball that the defensive side has to prepare for,” Jerod Mayo expanded on. “Whether that’s double-teaming or anything like that. That’s what he means by that.”

With the market for that kind of player dwindling, New England may need to pick up the phone and at least see if they can tempt Cincinnati to part with Higgins. They will almost certainly use the No. 3 overall selection on a quarterback, but the No. 34 pick in the second may at least perk the Bengals’ ears.

It also helps that these two teams have made several trades over the years, most recently in 2021, which helped the Patriots land Christian Barmore and the Bengals get Evan McPherson.

And there was also the Chad Johnson trade in 2011, so Higgins wouldn’t even be the first star wideout to be dealt from Cincinnati to New England.

All of this is to say that the most likely outcome is the team having Higgins play on the franchise tag like they made Jonah Williams play on the last year of his contract last season after requesting a trade. They also had no issue having safety Jessie Bates play on the tag for the 2022 season before allowing him to walk via free agency last offseason.

This is just another step in the Higgins saga that really doesn’t have a definite end in sight.