The Cincinnati Bengals are more than willing to allow WR Tee Higgins to play under his $21.8 million franchise tag. But they are not willing to pay him nearly that much on a long-term extension, apparently.
“The Bengals never approached the $20 million range for Higgins”, Kelsey Conway writes for the Cincinnati Enquirer. Rarely do you ever hear of contract negotiations with tagged players that don’t use the tag as a starting point.
In this case, however, the Bengals may not want to invest in Higgins for the long term. They know that they need to sign WR Ja’Marr Chase to a massive long-term extension either this offseason or next.