Locked On Bengals - Daily Podcast On The Cincinnati Bengals - Franchise tag coming for Tee Higgins (again)

Episode Date: February 17, 2025

The Cincinnati Bengals are expected to use the franchise tag on Tee Higgins, per our own James Rapien's reporting. Jake Liscow and James break down the news, from Higgins' increased value compared to last year, why the move was expected and necessary, how this year is different from last year from a long-term extension perspective, and why the Bengals should be incentivized to get a deal done as soon as they can.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!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.

T Higgins and Stripes? Well, the Bengals, they plan on franchise tagging T. Higgins, what it means for him in his future in Cincinnati and much, much more right now on Bengals. 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.

Let's go along with your host, James Rupim. We're part of the Lockdown Podcast. Network here on Lockdown Bengals, your team every day on YouTube and everywhere you get your podcast. And James, today we talk about news that you broke that T. Higgins is expected to be franchise tagged. You have some more information around that, some context that we can share. And let's start with the very simple part of this, which is that T. Higgins now with the

second straight franchise tag for $26 million and some change. change is set to be a Bengal if the Bengals choose for Tea to be a Bengal in 2025. That's pretty much it. They use a franchise tag. That's how the franchise tag works. And now we'll see whether it's an extension, whether there's a potential trade to be explored in the future. But the first step, and I feel like we've talked about this in the last week,

but for anyone who hasn't seen the shows, was franchise tagging tea. Yeah, I think that it's interesting and thank you. Getting this report and getting the information, I'm not sure it shocks any of our listeners, our regulars, our everydayers. By the way, shout out to the everydayers. It may shock some other fan bases across the league that it may be watching right now on YouTube. This was pretty much expected in Cincinnati, and it's because of a few factors. And we can break those down.

from the fact that Joe Burrow calls T. Higgins a need in December after on December 8th, I think it was the 8th, December 8th or 9th after that Monday night football game against Dallas praising T, saying he wants T back long term, saying there's a plan in place. That's where all of this started and all of this momentum. And I think that started behind the scenes. But that is where it's like, all right, well, the path to T coming back long term. It begins there, at least publicly. And I think the T being tagged at some point and the possibility of that is a big factor here. Because if I would have told you six months ago that they're going to tag T again,

I think a lot of people would say, oh, well, this is because of a tag in trade. And that's the path that they're going to go down. I'm not sure. In fact, it's more than not sure. That is not the case, at least as of now. And I think the hope is a long-term deal. And we can get into all of that. But a second straight tag for T. Higgins, he'll make 26.18 million is the projection this year.

If he doesn't get a long-term deal done, if they don't get a long-term deal done with him. And it's a step that at least keeps him away from the open market where he would certainly get $30 plus million per year. Clearly the top three agent wide receiver, clearly would have sent some shockwaves through the NFL if he signed elsewhere. He's not going to sign elsewhere because he's not going to hit the market. Some shockwaves sent anyway today with the Bengals, well, with the report that you have here that we get for once from a local media member. So I'm just going to reiterate that for you, James, and patch her back a little bit here. because honestly we often get the question like why is it never locally why is it always Ian Raffield? Why is it always Schaefter or whoever that breaks these stories? And so it's

nice that we get one locally. But we have been telling you people that have been listening to this show that letting T. Higgins get to the market would be malpracticed by the Bengals from an asset management perspective, even if their plan wasn't to keep him a wrapped. You just tag and trade him. That should have always been perceived as a worst-case plan. So unfortunately for fans of other teams, probably Patriots fans, I think, judging from the reactions that I saw on social media immediately after this story went out, it was never really a thing that he was just going to get to free agency and get to the open bidder. It would be severe malpractice in the first place.

And then the responses to that were, well, this was the Bengals. We're talking like, come on, guys. They know when they have an asset. They're very stubborn about assets when they think they have assets and getting rewarded for having those assets. And you can point to Jesse Bates certainly and the fractured relationship there. But the big difference here is, one, a positional value thing to some degree, but two, it's David Malageta is not in the picture right now. And as you talked about with the agent change, that is a massive part of why this path for T. Higgins on the franchise tag this time around is so different. from last year.

That's a big factor for sure. And I think the vibes feel much differently, which we could talk about. But before we do that, I think you mention the other teams. I don't think T. Higgins was nearly held in as high regard as he is now. It last year.

And it's because you're looking at T. Higgins, maybe Devante Adams, Chris Godwin coming off of a torn ACL, and who. It's just much different. The market feels different. The draft isn't as awesome. You don't have Malik neighbors plus Marvin Harrison Jr., plus a Brian Thomas falling to the 20s in the first round, Ladd-McConkie. Like, think about all the guys, and I know I missed a couple there, but that were in the top of the draft that you were like, oh, these guys are definitely going to be good. And you combine that with what we have in free agency this year, the draft not being as good.

And I just think T show people something this year. I know a lot of Bengals fans look at it and say, oh, well, 12 games. He's played 12 games in each of the past two years. Agreed. Miss five games in each of the past two seasons, 10 total. And it's like, all right, well, is he injury pro? Like, what's going on? Well, yeah, he's dealt with some soft tissue injuries.

He also had a career high 10 touchdowns. I feel like every single one of his catches went for a first down. It wasn't true. Not all of them went for first downs to be. clear, but he was catching stuff over the middle. He was really strong after contact. I felt like this year. I still think his best football is probably ahead of him. And so I do think his value just across the league feels different. Part of that is the market and what's available. And I think part of that is team. What he showed this season, he leveled up a bit. And I do think

that his best football is ahead of him. And the Bengals see that too, certainly. They see the market. they see everything around it and this asset in T. Higgins and I don't think they ever, once they really let the dust settle and looked at everything, I don't think they had any intent of letting him hit the open market. Yeah, you talk about the way he leveled up this year. We were talking about that going back to training camp when I was in town last year and got to see T. Higgins in person in training camp for the first time last year before we got to see him in any games. It was obvious that to me his athleticism took another step last year, his movement ability. He was just, moving better in camp and I think his ability to separate on the routes where the Bengals

ask him to separate, which largely slants and breakers from T. Higgins, comebacks, sure, certainly as well, part of the part of his game. But that was all, I think, better. And I think, maybe even more impactfully or more noticeably, he was running hard after the catch. And that was such a big aspect in terms of talking about, you know, the amount of catches he had that went for first out. He's a big player for wide receiver. He's got size on a lot of corners that he faces week and week out. And so putting that size to use and running through some guys was pretty fun to watch with T. Higgins this year, part of that leveling up process. Let's continue the conversation here and get into why this year might be different from last year. Why T. Higgins,

despite knowing this was coming or having the expectation that this was possible, could still be bristling a little bit. This isn't the ideal path and why perhaps it's necessary from a timing perspective, what the various incentives are for the Bengals versus the player side versus the agent side. More angles here to discuss with this planned franchise tag for T. Higgins coming up next. This is a message from our sponsor, Intuit TurboTax. Taxes was waiting and wondering and worrying if you were going to get any money back and then waiting, wondering, and worrying some more. Now taxes is matching with a TurboTax expert who can do your taxes as soon as today.

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real-time updates only in iOS mobile app. See guaranteed details at turbotax.com slash guarantees. Let's talk about T's perspective as he assuredly knows this. If you know this, you're able to publish it, how do you think T is feeling today? Do you think that there was good communication done? Do you think that, you know, think back to last year and how he felt after being franchise tagged the first time? How do you think T's feeling about this?

I think he knew not only that it was possible, but in a large part likely that this could happen. And it still doesn't necessarily need to happen. I guess that's an important part here, too. They could find common ground on a long-term deal. The guarantee is that they're guarantee, see what I did there, T, that T will not get to the market. They're not going to let him get to the market. They'll tag him before that March 4th deadline. The tag window opens up full disclosure Tuesday at 4 p.m. Eastern time. That's February 18th. And is open for weeks, March 4th at 4 p.m. And so by that 4 p.m. deadline on March 4th, and it could come much sooner than that. It's kind of up to the Bengals. And that's where the negotiating part of this comes in.

If I'm T, and I do think T wants to be in Cincinnati, this isn't, this is part of why you changed agents, is you didn't want it to be as ugly. And I think what David Moligetta would do on a second straight tag would say, all right, let's say, all right, let's. let's get you out of there and let's go get you a deal. And that would mean a trade demand. I don't anticipate that happening here. I think that Rocky Arsenal in Alliance sports, their plan is to get to a long-term deal in Cincinnati. And where those talks are, I do not know, full disclosure.

But knowing that you're going to get tagged now, knowing that that's the plan, I think that does set the stage to get something done long term. And I really, maybe I'm crazy here. I don't think it should take that long. I think we kind of know what the T. Higgins market is. And that's why you're seeing those reports that he could hit that $30 million per year mark. I think he would have if he were to get to free agency. Is he going to be mad if the Bengals offer him $27 million per?

I wonder that. I wonder what he's looking for. I wonder what the Bengals are comfortable with. But I do think that both sides are hoping to get to a long-term deal, which is the biggest difference between last year and this year, Jake. Yeah. And last year, go ahead. I was just going to say, I think that's worth underlining that that is the key difference.

But there are a number of other points that I wanted to get to and what you just said. So if you wanted to complete that thought before I jump in, go for it. Yeah. the biggest difference is he was tagged last year, and I don't think there was really any motivation on either side. As weird as it sounds, like, of course, do you want it a long-term deal? I'm not sure there were talks, period, to be quite honest with you. I would not be shocked at all if there were zero talks from a long-term extension standpoint. The plan here is the opposite. I think both sides want to get something done.

That's the desire. We'll see. Still needs to come together. But I think the intention feels much, much differently than it did a year ago. Oh, 100%. The plan has been for a while now to try to get a long-term extension done with T. Higgins. Now, there's so many angles here, I think, to still uncover, one of which is what the franchise tag does to the Bengals from a cap perspective. I want to make sure we get to that as well.

And it's something that we'll cover again when and if the Bengals officially apply the franchise tag to T. Higgins this year because it does carry a cap burden for 2025 until something has resolved whether that's an extension or a trade. But in terms of timing, say that there's an understanding between the Bengals and T. Higgins that there's a mutual desire to get a long-term extension done, which I believe there is. And you mentioned last year that wasn't the case. The Bengals last year got put the tag on T because they kind of threw their hands up and said, you know what? We're not even going to. This is just, we're too far apart. Here's a tag.

We don't have to worry about it anymore. You know what's going on. And the timing will be interesting this year. We might see it early again. We'll see when the tag or when an if, I guess, in case to get an extension done first. But why I don't think an extension will get done first is that the agent and the player are so incentivized to at least put up the appearance of a fight. Yeah.

Even if it's not directly a fight. If you are an agent or an agency, which is certainly involved in this negotiation, right, Ragi Arsano, the agency, you don't want to be seen as representing the number one free agent in the NFL according to various rankings this off season and accepting a deal below market value, open market value and he's out there floating to journalists that 30 million is coming from him right like that's coming from the agency it's not coming from teams necessarily so he he's trying to set the market value right as we see agents do often by talking to media sources oh yeah he could we're expecting you know somewhere around 30 million and then you're going to take a 27 maybe 26

I don't know what the number what maybe it's even 28 something that is below what he could have gotten on the open market before he before there's even a franchise tag you're not to be going to make the team you know try and and do this evil thing that now you the agent and the player have to deal with and well we we they use a franchise tag so they have this leverage and they do the bengals do have that leverage of the franchise tag but from an optics perspective both for the player and the agent the agent who wants to be seen by future potential clients as being able to get them the most money, they are highly disincentivized to try to get a deal done sooner than later.

Like they want this to go. The Bengals, on the other hand, still would like this to be done as soon as possible, even if they do have to go the franchise tag route as we're expected. And last week I wrote about this. We've talked about it multiple times, the idea that they have to tag it. Like you have to. You can't let this guy get out of the building, like Joe said. And T, even if he wants to be in Cincinnati, has every reason to want to get whined and dined.

Of course you want to get to the market. And that doesn't mean he's going to go on visits. I don't mean that. But why wouldn't you want to go to the market? That's why you play. You always want to be in free agency with teams calling, knowing that you're in demand. It doesn't mean you don't want to get the Cincinnati and stay in Cincinnati. But the Bengals can't let that.

happen they can it's part of it and other teams are furious right now you're going to see a lot of social media people people on social media say i can't believe the bengals and ripping the bengals i would have been so like it might have led the pod every single day of how the bengals made a mistake letting t higgins get to the market if that happened jake like i might we might have had like a one minute disclaimer ripping them as a franchise because it would be the biggest it would be the biggest mistake that you could make. And obviously, that was never in consideration. I think this was always the plan for them.

And we'll say that again if they do end up tagging them. Now, hopefully what this does, and I think that both sides are hopeful here of getting a long-term deal, hopefully this allows and creates movement in that direction. T, we're not going to get to the market. This is their plan. Not that they're literally going to go to the website bengelstalk.com, and that's where Rocky Arsino is going to say, well, I see here that it's going to happen.

So they still may wait for the tag. But to your point, hopefully this is the, all right, well, we know this is what's going to happen. Let's try to hammer out a deal. And it would be big to get done in the near future. I think of the list, it would be nice to get him done. And then maybe Trey. and then you handle Jamar.

I know a lot of people would probably have it the other way around with Jamar first. But tea to me makes the most sense if you can get him done in the near future. Yeah, let's talk about the timing a little bit, the financial aspects here. Yeah, if they didn't franchise TV, we'd have to contact our friends at Lockdown Mabbs and find out how do you cover a franchise debacle-like decision? How long do you, you know, we can take some pointers from our guys at Lockdown Mavs. But let's talk about the timing aspect here a little bit, James. Let's talk about the financial aspect of what the tag means

and where the incentives are for the Bengals to get that deal done. We'll do that coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by Fandall, and maybe you're bullish on T. Higgins and the Bengals, not just reaching a long-term deal, but T-Higgins and the Bengals may be making it the Super Bowl 60. Super Bowl 60? Well, the good news is you can get in on all of the future bets

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And it's your shot for $150 in bonus bets. Fandle.com make every moment more with Fandle, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. So we've mentioned the $26 million number that comes along with the franchise tag and some change. What is it, 0.18, some amount of hundreds of thousands of dollars tacked on to the end of that $26 million number. that franchise tag as last year equals the cap hit for T. Higgins. And so from a timing perspective, it makes a lot of sense for the Bengals to as soon as they apply that franchise tag to T work on getting the long-term deal done as soon as possible. They can lower that cap hit from 26 million to say 10 million or 15 million,

both of which I think are reasonable numbers for the way the Bengals could draw up this contract structurally by just simply getting the extension done and getting T to sign the extension. The cash and cap implications are different, but if they feel like they need cap space because $26 million off the top of your cap is just an inflexible number, no matter what way you cut it, then they can get that deal done. And while they will have to pay more cash this year, which would probably be maybe $9 million more than the franchise tag in cash. Maybe they give him $35 million in cash flow in year one,

and there's a bigger cash expense. But the cap hit goes down significantly. That gives you all of that flexibility and knowledge going into free agency that you know what your cap picture is going to look like. You know what your cash picture is going to look like if you're the Bengals. And so there are massive incentives from the Bengals perspective to get this done as soon as possible, kind of in direct opposition,

I think, to what T and the agent want, where they would like it to look like, you know, they're fighting for every dollar. And so I think that there are opposite incentives here in terms of timing. Yeah, it's a good point because, and honestly, especially after the tag happens, you have to throw the, in your appearance part of it

does matter, but hopefully they just throw that out. And they're like, all right, let's hammer out this deal. And who knows? I mean, I would imagine he wants a four-year deal. But maybe he goes the three-year route, right? Maybe. Maybe he's open to that and wants that so he can test the market again before he's his age 30 season and can potentially get another extension down the line.

I would assume it's four. And I would imagine the framework is somewhere in the 105, 105 million, It's a $1.15 million is where it ends up, if I had to guess. And so then all the other stuff is all the details. Obviously, you have the guaranteed money and you have the structure and all of those things. But that doesn't mean T's agents going to start there. Might be where they end up. And hell, the Bengals might not start at 105.

Who knows what they start at too, right? But as long as neither side gets so insulted that they don't have talks, they don't have conversations. I think that's a huge factor in this. And I don't think that will happen, by the way. But finding that common ground in the near future, you're right. It benefits the Bengals. And it is important to mention this because I do think Joe, because Joe Bros. obviously said keep tea, keep tea, keep tea.

He's also said, well, we want to be here and we plan on making it happen. Getting a deal done in the near future is the team-friendly portion of this, I would say. say, right? It is not taking less. It's not going to feel like T. Higgins is taking less if he signs a four-year, $112 million extension with the Bengals, contract with the Bengals. That's going to feel pretty good, I would say, with a lot of money up front, right? So that's not necessarily a discount, but what it would be is it would give them, especially if you do it before free agency, it would give them the ultimate flexibility. So I think that's where that comes in, where the players can do their part. If you're T, all right, well, let's get this done by,

let's get this done now, but let's get this done by March 5th, let's say, well before the start of the new league here. And if you're the Bengals, you would like that to be done too. So maybe it pushes you to like just do the last thing that you got to do, right, to get the deal done right before free agency opens or the negative side of this would be if they don't get it done and they just carry that cap it into free agency, and then they play poor and free agency, and they don't make the moves they need to make them free agency because they have this $26 million cap hit.

They're like, well, what if we don't get an extension done? And we don't have an extra $10 million in cap space. And we don't know how much cash we're spending on T this year. We're not sure about you know, like if all of that happens, that would be where we'll be critical of the front office. But this move in and of itself, necessary. Not something that should be seen as a slight to T. Higgins,

not something that should be seen as terribly upsetting to T. Higgins, there's always the option if negotiations just are not close that the team and player could realize that a trade is still necessary. And it's going to be the non-exclusive tag like you wrote James, just like last year, which means if the Patriots are that desperate, which they won't be, they can negotiate with T. Higgins and the Bengals will get two first round picks. That would not be the worst thing.

That's far from the worst case outcome. avoids a worst case outcome, which is C. Higgins just hitting free agency. I'd say the next worst outcome is C. Higgins playing on the tag. I would say that that is can't happen. Pretty unlikely too, right? Because tagging him for a third time is different than tagging him for a second time. The, the multiplier on previous year's salary on the third consecutive tag goes up. And that becomes a pretty untenable number for the third tag.

So like that that's not really something that you want. having a $26 million cap that is inflexible. It's not really something that you want if you're the Bengals either. So that technically is still in play, that second worst outcome, but I would say extremely unlikely as of today. And so I think you're still heading toward, much like Tray Hendrickson, an outcome where it's either extension or trade. And those are the two most likely outcomes, but even more so in T's case than Tray's case.

Yeah. The Bengals had zero leverage before deciding to go with the tag. And now it gives them the, all right, well, let's figure this out. Let's keep you here. And if not, they're at least get something for them. And that's up to this point, I think that's all you can ask for. You hinted on this, or not hinted on it, you said it on yesterday's show. These deals don't get done in February very rarely.

does that happen? And so be patient, Bengals fans. The Bengals aren't late to the party yet. Now, I get why you're nervous. I do. No doubt. But this was a necessary step. It's not the wrong step. It is the right step. And hopefully it's just the next step forward to them, either getting a long-term deal on in February, which again, I think would be pretty surprising or early March or applying the tag in the moment they apply the tag, then things could get really, really interesting, I think, from a long-term extension perspective. Because I think that's what most people want. I think there's a decent amount of people that would be open to the trade idea.

Fine. I'm not sure anyone wanted to just see him leave in free agency, because there's very few scenarios, if any, where the Bengals are much improved in 2025 as a football team when you lose T. Higgins for nothing. I think that actually might be a good reason to get the tag done early. If your perspective is that the tag allows you to just be like, all right, the tag is done. Let's talk.

Because free agency comes quick in March. And I think right before free agency would be probably best case scenario to get this done, realistically. Like maybe it gets done earlier, but wouldn't be surprised if you see this go into the first week of free agency either. And so between the T. Higgins decision, the trade decision, the Jamar extension, a lot of big financial impacts there

that the Bengals will want to work through, in my opinion, as soon as possible, because they might have, you know, roughly $60 million in cash, new cash for those three guys, and then they'll have another $60 to $100 million to spend on other guys, less than $100, maybe $60 to $90 million, to spend on other guys,

in addition to all the cash they already have set aside for next year, for contracts that they've already gotten. So having a clear financial picture and cap picture means that the Bengals, and we've said this a few times, should be very busy between now and the start of free agency and should expect to hear this pickup laid around the combine, right after the combine. We'll start to hear, I think, a little bit more,

but there might not be much news until just before free agency. Hopefully. That would be a good time for the Bengals to get this stuffed up. And exploring options with Trey Hendrickson, something that we've alluded to a couple times. That will be the next episode here on Lockdown Bengals, barring other significant news between now and them. We'll talk about whether there are good alternatives for the Bengals just getting an extension done with Trey. Until then, a lot going on.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. Ho day. And have a good one.