Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Cincinnati Bengals officially franchise tag Tee Higgins for second straight year - What's next?

Episode Date: March 3, 2025

The Cincinnati Bengals made the franchise tag official for Tee Higgins on Monday, but they're still working on getting a long-term deal done. Jake Liscow and James Rapien react to the news we were expecting, and break down the interesting editorialization in the Bengals' press release, the timing that the club should be targeting to get the deal done, and the salary cap implications of the $26.1 million franchise tag. Join the Locked On Bengals Insider Community! https://joinsubtext.com/lockedonbengalsFind and follow Locked On Bengals on your favorite podcast platforms:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/locked-on-bengals-daily-podcast-on-the-cincinnati-bengals/id1159723162Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7AObc0lh0WmQl5fJVgtajsGoogle Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vbG9ja2Vkb25iZW5nYWxz?sa=X&ved=0CAYQrrcFahcKEwio_sXtj8nuAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAgStitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/locked-on-bengalsSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!ChewyChewy has everything you need to keep your pet happy and healthy. And right now you can save $20 on your first order and get free shipping by going to Chewy.com/LOCKEDONNFL.FanDuelRight now, new FanDuel customers can get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins!Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Cincinnati Bengals have made the franchise tag official for T. Higgins. What comes next? What does it mean? Let's break it all down. You are Locked on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What up Bengals fans and welcome to another episode of the Locked on Bengals podcast. I'm your host, Jake Liscoe. He's your host, James Rapine, and we are Locked on the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team, every day. We're on YouTube

and we're everywhere you get your podcast. So if you are new to the Lockdown Bengals podcast, you can hit that subscribe button to make sure you don't miss an episode. We just talked this morning, James. This is our second recording today about the Alex Kappa cut and what we can expect for the remainder of the cuts from

this team over the next few days and weeks and maybe even into later parts of the off season. But today for our second episode, we're recording of the day, James. We talk about the official franchise tag landing on T. Higgins where there are some interesting details when you look at the way the Bengals released that press release and some of the words they used around that compared to last

year, especially. The fan reaction has also been quite interesting to me, James, and we can discuss, of course, what's next for the Bengals and T. Higgins as behind the scenes, they're still working. What's your first thought, James? Inevitable. This was bound to happen. We obviously talked about it. Oh, let me, let me see when, let me see when. February 17th is when we first talked about this. This was going to happen. It was always highly unlikely that they were going to get a long-term deal done before the tag was placed. It's just the part of the business, because if you're Rocky Arsenal in Alliance sports, even if you know the Bengals plan on doing it, making them do it is a part of the procedure. It's probably part of what you want. Because if

if you had negotiated a long-term deal, say, Saturday. But then you have the Patriots over here and the Titans over here and all these other teams that were probably going to pay T more than projected. I think if he had hit free agency, it would have been a bidding war for T. Higgins' services and maybe he gets 32, 33, even $35 million per year. Like, I don't think that's out of the question. Given the fact that if you look at the free agent market, Chris Godwin coming off of a torn ACL is considering considered the top.

free agent-wide receiver now, not 26-year-old T. Higgins, who is coming off of a career high 10 touchdown season. And so I think he would have been in demand. And so this needed to happen. It was always the fallback plan is really not the right word. It was always the plan if they didn't get a long-term deal done with T by Tuesday. And so doing it on Monday, hopefully what it does, Jake, is it gets both sides, armed, ready, locked in to getting a long-term.

long-term deal done because I think that's the intention and that's that's what needs to happen now is this can't be a they haven't told July 15th to do so this can't be a summer thing I don't even want it to be a a spring thing we're not in spring yet it should be a this week thing get it done because I don't think it it shouldn't be at least that hard for both sides to to overcome whatever hurdles are there to get it done now that they know that the tag is in place. Yeah, we'll talk about the timeline, of course, and what can happen now that the tag has been exercised, a non-exclusive tag, which is the same as we saw last year. But our everydayers, as you've mentioned, James, knew this was coming from your report on February 17th and the discussions

we've had throughout the offseason. The Bengals letting T. Higgins just get to free agency was never a good plan. Even if T had not changed. agents even if tea was still represented by David Malageta they should have gone this path eventually with the tag and trade but there is a key difference now that it's not David Malageta representing T. Higgins and we'll talk about the verbiage and the press release that indicates that but we talked about when the tag could come from the idea to just get it done early so that T's camp knew exactly where they stood and perhaps that would have helped negotiations along to the idea of waiting until the end of the window

and just really earnestly working on the long-term deal until they ran out of time, using the tag if they had to, and then continuing to work on the long-term deal. And that's what ended up happening, but both of those possibilities were always on the table, and what wasn't on the table really at any point was, all right, T, go ahead, go get your money,

go get into the bidding war, go be a prize at the auction, and we'll see if we get a comp pick or not. And spoiler, I don't think the Bengals were playing in the comp pick waters this offseason, even if T were an unrestrictive free agent that wasn't franchise tags. So I think our listeners that are everydayers knew this was inevitable. But just because they knew it was inevitable, it doesn't mean that there's not some analysis here to be done.

And I think that when you look at like the language and the press release and whatever point you were about to make, James, as you're ready to jump in there, there's a lot of interesting details here to talk about. Well, first off, when I had that report, you're like, yeah, it's probably going to happen at the end of the window. And it makes sense. So good job there. You called that too. Do you make anything?

Because I think a lot of people were like, oh, man, it was done on Monday at 2.30 and not Tuesday at 4 p.m. Clearly, they're far apart in talks. Do you buy that? I will sell that all day long. I don't think that is even close to remotely, at least what I was thinking, even though I saw some reaction there. Do you feel that way? I think that it's hard to read into the degree of separation based on the timing of the franchise tag being 26 hours before the deadline or whatever

it ended up being, 26, 27, whatever it ended up being. The thing that you can take away is that they probably knew they weren't going to get it done by tomorrow at 4 p.m. So whatever that means in terms of distance from the finish line is, what that tells you. But I don't think that it explicitly means they're far apart. I know Diana Rusini tweeted on Monday as well when the T. Higgins news happened that the Bengals and Jamar Chase are far apart at this time. She's reiterated that report. Nothing to do with T. there. And again, I don't think that really means anything right now. But I'm not extrapolating

from the timing the degree to which the Bengals and T. Higgins have to cover to get the contract done. It just means I think that they didn't think it would get done in the next 20. or 26 hours or whatever, whatever it is. Yeah, I think, I almost try to put myself in the Bengals front office. Yeah, right? And you're Duke Tobin. And we heard from him last week and he's like, well, we knew we were going to do it. Why wait until the last second?

Insert Duke Tobin laugh. Like, it's just one of those things. And I also do think that it gives T's camp, even if they knew it was coming. I keep hammering this home. Even if you know it's coming, sometimes it's. still needs to be done. And then you can move forward. And then you can get over what a hurdle or whatever negotiating tactic.

Because if I'm tease representatives, I probably heard at the combine that, yeah, man, if he gets the free agency, there's going to be a three and that second number isn't going to be a zero on his average annual value. It's going to be a two or a three or who knows. And so making the Bengals do this. And I know it's not that forceful. don't think it is. I think both sides are certainly talking and in good standing. But making the Bengals do this was good business. And I don't think T is upset at this. And heck, I remember a year ago at

this time or around this time, I told T, I was like, don't be surprised now. It wasn't a year. It was close to a year ago, though. Don't be surprised if you get double tagged. So he's had a lot of time to process it, I would say. And so as long as it results in a long-term deal, hopefully this week, hopefully we're doing an emergency show, Jake, about this week. But then I, it's all for not because it makes sense to place the tag. And I don't buy that they're far apart. I don't even really know how far apart they could be outside looking in.

It doesn't really make sense to me that they would be miles and miles apart, given where T is. But now that the tag is placed, I do think that a deal could come together rather quickly if both sides push for it. Yeah, we'll see what the timeline looks like. I think the timeline is actually really interesting. I think it's something that we'll talk about. I think that the verbiage and the press release is a detail that I want to draw attention to as well. The last thing, to close out our first segment here, James, I want to talk about this idea that T's mad because a lot of fans saw the tweet.

And T broke the news. Tag, period, was the tweet. tweet. And I think a lot of people took that as annoyance. And I don't think that Tia is necessarily thrilled that he's been franchise tagged for the second time. Don't get me wrong. But I think that it's some assumptions to get to the point where he is now mad about it. I think that the intent is to continue to work on a long-term deal as the press release talks about. And that's a detail that we're about to dive into. But I'm not buying that he's strictly speaking mad. I wouldn't be surprised if he's nonplussed,

but I don't think that he's been alienated by a move that he surely saw coming and you saw coming as far back as last year. We talked about this on the podcast when it happened the first time. But let's continue to dive into some of these details and the timing that we should expect from here coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by Chewy. Now, you've probably heard of Chewy. They really do have everything you need to keep your pet happy and healthy,

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apply C site for complete details. Let's talk about this press release James then we'll talk about timing. Yeah. This press release is small, it's subtle but it's fascinating compared to last year the added

editorialization I would call it of we're franchise tagging T. Higgins with the intent of continuing to pursue a long-term deal is a rare thing to see in these sort of press conferences or press releases. Everything else in this press release

is pretty boilerplate. We've placed a tag on T. Higgins. Here's a list of his achievements and a little biographical information. He's going into his 60 or whatever, right? Like very factual matter of fact to the point dry stuff.

But this little bit of editorialization, I think it's not a surprise by any means, but it is interesting to see the Bengals take that step and include that in the press release. It is. It is. And what a tone changer

indifference from last year. I think that's, and really not even last year. And I has Duke Tobin this in the his session, the audio only session with the beat writer. I was like, has the tone changed in why? Because it has changed, right?

And he was like, no, my goal has always been to keep tea. You remember that for a few years ago. And it's one of those things. But let's be real here. He can say that. It definitely is different, 100%. And I get why he would say it that way. But the tone has changed so much so that they put this in the press release.

And the only other time I can think of this, is when they did the fifth year option for Joe Burrow and then people were like, oh my God, they're not going to sign Joe Burrow. And then they had to put out the release that said, no, we're still working on a long-term deal with Joe. This is just the really, they felt the reaction and the outcry,

which was silly because it was just a formality of them picking up Joe Burroughs fifth year option. It was also inevitable. And so this isn't to that level, but it's the only comp that I can remember where it's like, yeah, we're doing this. And usually it's we're doing this. We made this move. That's that.

Whether it's hello, goodbye, whatever. With this one, it's like, yeah, we did this. But by the way, this is why we're doing it. We're doing it because we want to sign him long term. The messaging there I think is really, really important. You want to talk about reading the tea leaves. I'll keep pun intended that they wouldn't do that if they weren't. confident they could get a deal done because you know how bad that looks you know how bad that would

look if they don't get a deal down with tea when when on monday march third they tag him in the second line or the part of the first line in the press release excuse me commas exist after the comma is with the intent of continuing to work toward a long-term deal in Cincinnati would really be borderline embarrassing if you don't get a long-term deal down with see at that point yeah i compare it to last year where the entire thing is essentially copied and pasted with updates for fifth year to sixth year how many games he's played in how many yards and touchdowns he has how many 1,000 yard receiving years he's had the first line is exactly the same except there's a comma this year like you said the bengals today designated wide receiver t higgins as a team's franchise

player this year that that bit that you read completes the the top of the press release. Last year, the press release concluded with a Zach Taylor quote that said, T has done an outstanding job for us since we drafted him in 2020, and I'm glad he'll continue to be a big part of our offense and our team. Now is it. Nothing about a long-term deal, nothing about continuing to work toward a long-term deal. Tells you what they're working on behind the scenes. And again, talk is cheap. We will reiterate this point. I understand your skepticism, you in the comments or you and my social media mentions, it says, oh, the Bengals are going to screw this up.

They're going to drag this out. This is going to take into July. I hear you. Let's see it, right? Let's see the action to back up the words and the posturing in Duke Tobin's comments over the last month or so. But everything that we have heard, everything that we have been able to read into, tells us that the negotiations are ongoing.

This is their goal. And we can start to get to this timeline discussion, I think next. The impetus to get it done sooner than later does exist. The Bengals are incentivized to get this done sooner than later for multiple reasons. But chief of those is clarity of financial situation and just getting it done, putting it in the rearview mirror, not having the distraction, especially if you get into the summer of having. to deal with trying to work this deal out.

Yeah, it would be so much better to have this one done. And I really think the deadline for me from a, a Bengals perspective, is probably what? Free agency officially opens Wednesday, Wednesday the 12th. So then, even in the legal tampering window, the cap is whatever because it it doesn't officially count it's not officially on the books you don't have to stress about it yep so tuesday basically a week from now unless they want to go Wednesday morning whatever but maybe it's late night and they make us do a late night recording but that's kind of the

deadline otherwise i just don't want it to affect how the bengals operate that's it and so If they could somehow avoid that, great. I don't think that's inevitable. I think it's the other way where it will impact everything. It will be hanging over their head. And that would concern me some when you look at what they need. Because it's not like it's one or two things that we talked about CAPA on our previous show. Like that's a hole now that I think they plan on addressing and filling and they have the room to do so.

But there's also a bunch of other holes. and you, if you can move, like, what do you think the T. Higgins extension, just cap-wise, you've been all over it on the cap, follow Jake on X at Jake Glisco? What do you think it would move to, if they sign him to a long-term extension that's reasonably realistic from a cap hit this year? Well, we can get into the cap situation in a little bit more detail here. Talk a little bit more about timing to finish up the show. But I would say they would save between $6 and $10 million on the cap. in 2025. Now, whether or not that's necessary, that is a question. But I think that they cannot let the franchise tag cap number hamstring their ability to go into negotiations with external players in any capacity. And that's why the timing is so important. So let's finish up that conversation

here. We can talk about the cap situation a little bit more. We can talk about what technically the non-exclusive tag means in case you're curious about that to do all of our dotting of eyes and crossing of T's to finish up the show here now that the franchise tag is official on T. Higgins coming up next. And honestly, Jake, the thing, I think both sides should be really motivated to get something done now. Like for T. Higgins, all right, you know you're tagged. You know the situation.

That's it. Let's get something done. In the Bengals side, we're going to talk about that from a timeline. perspective. But if you're tea, don't you want the Bengals to add as many great players as they can and as many pieces? So the urgency there as well, like they should just be straight up, just get in a room and figure this out because both sides should be motivated to get it done. And so both sides are motivated to get it done. It's not rocket science or brain surgery. and even that doesn't take months,

at least the brain surgery part of it. You know, it may take a day. But, you know, get the surgeon in here and let's get rolling, right? Yeah, I don't see why this should take too terribly long at this point. The only thing that I guess you could point out is that technically,

because he's on the non-exclusive tag, which again, isn't unusual. Same thing we saw with the Mark Jackson, same thing we saw with Dee Higgins last year. Other teams can negotiate with T. Higgins. They can submit an offer, sheet that the Bengals would then have the right to match. And if they don't match it, they would be entitled to two first round picks.

So I can guarantee you that no team is going to give T. Higgins an offer sheet because that is signing over two first round picks for T. Higgins. And that is a severe cost to pay. I don't think that in the tag and trade explorations that would be out there because you'd also be committing to extending T, of course, in that circumstance, if you were that team. I don't think in the tag and trade scenario, which is not something the Bengals are even considering right now that they would be able to find even necessarily a single first round pick, even though I think that's what they would be asking for.

I think that they might have a bit of a difficult time finding that compensation. So that technically could happen, wouldn't expect it to happen, would expect teams to tamper and try to explore what a contract would look like and try to engage with Bengals and trade talks, which I think will probably be rebuffed. But if you hear about that in the next week that other teams are exploring the trade or that teams are asking, I wouldn't necessarily react too severely to it because if you were another team

and you saw that T. Higgins was potentially available in a trade and you needed a wide receiver and we were covering locked on whatever show that was, we would say, yeah, you should call the Bengals and at least ask. Even though they're stubborn, should at least put in the phone call, right? And so that shouldn't surprise you. That is technically possible.

But that would be the only thing that they might even, potentially want to wait for at this point. And the Bengals stance on this should be so clear that it really shouldn't have an impact. The Bengals are notorious for their position on trades. They're not considering trading T. Higgins right now. And they are trying to get the extension done. So whatever details there are, hopefully they can get it done in the next week or so. Like you said, getting it done around the time that the negotiating window opens or free agency opens should 100%

be the goal. Now, whether or not that happens or it takes into the first couple of days or even a week of free agency is something that we'll have to see. And then at that point, we'll have to reevaluate if we've had no new information. I expect you would get new information between now and then if negotiations are still ongoing at that point, that would give us some insight into what's going on. But this next week, I do think, is important. And I do think it would be important to get it done by the open of free agency. I will be slightly critical if they don't. And they've let's that impact the way that they're negotiating with players in that negotiating window or beginning of free agency. But we'll have to see how that all plays out. I don't know that it's necessarily

going to happen by the beginning of free agency, but I do think that should be, and very well could be the goal. And the way you, they can, they can maintain flexibility and get a bunch of deals done in free agency by going up to the cap, basically. Yeah. And then realizing that when you sign you're going to free up the six to ten million that you need for the practice squad and for rookies and for like it's just that's not that's not how they operate it is not that's what i was just about to say it's like that is not comfortable for them at all no and so that's why we're going to hammer this part home like there is kind of a deadline because otherwise it could impact how they how they're going to play in the free agent sandbox and everyone wants them to

really aggressive and push their way into the next guard that they need and the next defensive tackle and defensive end and linebacker and I mean the list goes on and on right tight end will they get this guy or that like okay but it would be best for all involved he wants to solve too he's in Miami training right now I know he would love to get a long term deal done what wouldn't you of course you do I I'm sure he wants to man I'm going to be in Cincinnati for the next four years and like just know that. And that's part of why he probably changed agents. Part of why he didn't stay with his agent where he probably would be demanding a trade right now.

The moment that tag is placed, I'm sure there would be a trade request coming out from David Moligetta. So now is the time where you need the urgency from both sides. Does it mean go unfair? I'm not saying low ball tea. I'm saying urgency on both sides to get it done. There should be. because for T, one, you just want it done, two, you know you're tagged. And for the Bengals, free agency is looming.

And so literally I would call it like, all right, look, free agency is looming. Let's get this done. Let's work on it. And if you can lower that by $6 to $10 million, it just gives you that much more flexibility. Yeah, his current cap number, just in case you're not aware, you haven't heard a lockdown Bengals episode for the last little bit. his $26.1792 million, $26,179,200. That number could go down to $15 million, could go down to $20 million. That's where my range comes from.

It could be $5 to $10 million. It could be very similar. Maybe they don't try to minimize that cap hit too much. Maybe it only goes down a couple million dollars. But I think inevitably it goes down if they get a long-term deal done. This isn't like a Trey Hendrickson thing where when they did that one-year extension for him, his cap had actually went up. Different comparison here from a contractual structure perspective,

getting an entirely new deal done versus an extension with Trey. So wouldn't compare those two things if that comes to mind for you. The over-the-cap figure for the Bengals cap space now in case you're curious is 43 million, now including the T. Higgins franchise tag. That is top 51 cap space, I believe. In my tracking, which is top 53 cap space and includes rookie cap hits includes dead cap hit which so does over the cap includes practice squad cap hits which over the cap does not includes potential expenses and I got this number from Andre

Perota who does great work on the cap for practice squad elevations throughout the year for offseason workout bonuses the Bengals would be at about $32 million in cap space at that point which is much lower than you're going to see on over the cap but that is the real number that they would have so obviously reducing the number for T. Higgins would would free up some money for 2025. And obviously there are some potential cuts that we talked about on the show we recorded earlier today. And if you missed that one, that would be another potential, $6 million or so for Jermaine Pratt and $9 million or so for Sam Hubbard.

That would be freed up. Nine and a half. Yeah, so you round up. So Jermaine's actually 5.6 and Sam's 9.6. So it works out to be, what is that? 16.2. Look at you. You're supposed to be the math guy.

Isn't that right? You're supposed to be the math guy here. I'm pretty sure I got it right, though. What do you mean? What, 9.6. And 5.6. Yep. Oh, it's 15.

15, yeah. Man. Didn't get it right. You're supposed to get names wrong in the math right. What happens when I try to do math on the five? You've gotten all the names right. That's what happens. So what happens when we do two shows in a day.

Right. hopefully it's three. Hopefully it's that the T. Higgins is extended. Get a third skirt going? Man, we'll just get all the shows done in one day. Yeah. Well, it's Tuesday. We'll see you next week here on Lockdown Bengals.

We've done the whole week of episodes. Make sure you listen to all of them because they're all different. No. I don't foresee that being the case, but hopefully this week, that would be nice. Yeah, I think that if they can get it done before free agency opens, that would be great. If they could get all three done, that would be ideal. And talking Jamar and Trey as well, that would be ideal. I think that is pie in the sky.

That seems pretty unlikely. But that would be great if they could get there. And two done, because the two would be, that would be nice. It would be T and Jamar. And then Trey, it's like, okay, well, that's lingering, but you can attack it at some point. Get through this free agency period. Like if you're just down to one, because Jamar's cap, it probably drops two. and it would be nice to go from 22 to 18, something like that.

I would expect that it should go down even more than that. But again, we'll see how they structure these things for T and Jemar. We'll see how they decide to attack the cap picture. Because as we've said, with a weak free agency class, yes, there are a lot of needs, but how much cap space do they really need this year versus how much do they want to preserve for next year where the T. Higgins and, and Jamar Chase cap hits will start to hit. The other side of that is the cap is going to continue to go up.

It may not go up at the rate that has gone up over the last four years. The cap will continue to go up, though. And so you don't want to be too concerned about those future years if you're the Bengals. And so that is the one thing I would say there on the other side in terms of being in favor of preserving cap space in this year because the cap isn't going down, where you would have to be worried about that in future years. But we'll see how they manage it. analyze it when they do those contracts and we get a look at those structures and have a clear idea of what spending they have after those deals are done as we get those details. And that's why paying attention to the math, even though I'm sure I lost a lot of you over

the last five minutes, is useful because it is predictive in terms of telling us what the Bengals will do in terms of spending in the near future. Hopefully it's a lot, a lot of money. Look at you getting the math right. It's called redeeming yourself, Jake. We'll see what that looks like. And if the Bengals can redeem themselves in the eyes of their fans for whom they have lost credibility by getting these deals done sooner or later. And if you're not one of those fans, I guess I'm just not talking to you.

But until next time, whether there's news or not, we'll be back here on Lockdown Bengals. Thanks for listening, Hootay, and have a good one.