The Bengals Shouldn’t Worry About A Tee Higgins Replacement
Credit: Sam Greene via Imagn Images
Joe Burrow said the Bengals have the ability to retain the core of star players, and that he is “of course” willing to restructure his contract.
“We have the cap space to get it done,” Burrow said on FS1’s Breakfast Ball. “I want to make it happen. Everybody involved Trey, Tee, Ja’Marr, Mike G, we all want to stay together. When you have guys that are motivated like that I think you can get those things done.”
That possibility may have to deal with the final boss known as the Cincinnati Bengals front office, who has made a real fun habit of dropping the ball of late. Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins have both not received contract extensions despite elite production when they see the field. Trey Hendrickson found out about Duke Tobin’s comments regarding Trey’s extension in a text from his dad, which is like finding out your girlfriend “needs to talk” via a text from her dad.
Their beloved aerial attack may be depleted when the 2025 season rolls around. They have lived and died by Joe Burrow yeeting footballs to Chase and Higgins, and while it’s been fun to watch, it has led to an imbalanced team. With the fact that they will be an ungodly expensive trio to keep, it makes you wonder if the money they would spend on Tee Higgins would be better allocated elsewhere, like on defense or the interior of the line to improve the running game and pass protection.
It raises a valid question – in the event of a Tee Higgins departure, do the Bengals even need a replacement? Would the Bengals have a more balanced team if they allocated their resources to other areas of the field and shifted their gameplan to a more elevated running game?
Burrow, Chase, and Higgins haven’t just been fun to watch, but they’ve been a necessity, as the defense has been subpar and downright porous at times. The Bengals no longer have the luxury of having the trio on rookie deals. They are all at the point in their careers where contract extensions kick in, and Burrow has already received his. When Burrow, Chase, and Higgins score quickly, the opponent capitalizes on the poor defense and puts six points of their own on the board just as quickly. While that very much could change in an Al Golden regime, as it currently stands, the high flying passing offense and leaky defense both led to the Bengals being the one team in the NFL in 2024 to both score and allow at least 430 points.
The trio will be an extremely expensive one to keep in 2025 (likely north of $100 million), and the Bengals’ narrative regarding extending Higgins has been “We’ll try”, and communication between the front office and players has been foggy at best.
Even if the Bengals let Tee walk to another team, it’s not all bad. As the most coveted free agent in football, his departure will give the Bengals a third round compensatory pick, and it will enable them to spend money on other free agents. Mind you, the passing offense won’t be totally lost, as they will still have Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase. An offense that doesn’t live and die via Joe Burrow’s throwing arm can use Chase Brown to make the running game more of a focal point of the offense, and it can plug up holes on a defense that badly needs it. It can also show that Burrow doesn’t need an Ocean’s Eleven-level cast to be an effective quarterback. It was similar to what happened when the Chiefs traded Tyreek Hill to the Dolphins, which was such a shocking move, I remember where I was when it happened. Granted, the Chiefs got a host of draft picks in exchange for him, but it enabled Kansas City to build a balanced and well-oiled machine. So far, as a result, they have won every Super Bowl since trading the former All-Pro.
It will also allow them to further unlock their running game, as Chase Brown fully emerged once being handed the bell cow role in the wake of Zack Moss’ season ending injury. The Bengals, who are the only franchise in NFL history to never have a 1,500 yard rusher, had horrible struggles in run blocking last year, but saw Chase Brown have a strong season nonetheless, as he was 10 yards short of 1,000. A strong running game will allow the team to improve their clock management, which has been a point of contention in the anti-Zac Taylor narrative, and it will allow the Bengals to maximize the value they got out of their 2023 fifth round pick. While lighting up the scoreboard is fun to watch, a running game with no weak points allows teams to put games on ice and put victories in the W column, and even a single victory more would have given the Bengals a playoff berth this season.
When Michael Lombardi said on the Pat McAfee show that the Bengals love to “score, score, score” (and who doesn’t love to watch that?), he mentioned that it comes at the cost of other aspects of their game like toughness and a solid running game. The Bengals are a fun team to watch, and while they are one dimensional (an all out aerial attack), that one dimension is arguably the most effective one in the NFL. With letting Tee walk in free agency and balancing out the roster, it will give aid to the rest of the roster and turn the team from one dimensional into a complete franchise; that complete franchise will still include the NFL’s best QB-WR combo.
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