Albert Breer: Bengals Are 'Better Off' Trading Tee Higgins Before 2023 NFL Draft If Deal Isn't Done

The Bengals can sign Higgins to a contract extension this offseason.

Author:
Russ Heltman
Publish date:
Feb 28, 2023 11:46 AM EST

In this story:

CINCINNATI — Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer gave his thoughts on the Tee Higgins trade ideas getting floated so far this season.

The MMQB columnist thinks the Bengals should try and get a deal done with Higgins before the draft. If that doesn't happen, they'd be "better off" trading him and drafting his replacement with one of the first-round picks they get back.

"The Bengals are going to get inquiries on Tee Higgins for the same reason the Titans, 49ers, Commanders, and Seahawks did on their young receivers last year," Breer wrote. "Higgins is going into a contract year and will be expensive to keep. Compounding the problem for Cincinnati is that Ja’Marr Chase will be eligible for a new deal next year.

"So the question, to me, isn’t if you want Higgins on your team (you do). It’s whether you can sign him. And if you can’t, you would be better off with Jordan Addison, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, or Quentin Johnston, with the pick you’d get in a trade, for the length of a rookie deal than Higgins for one more year."

This take makes a lot more sense if the calendar read 2024, not 2023. No receiver in this class is close to the level of player Higgins is right now.

Nor are they as good as he was coming out of Clemson.

Secondly, I might be missing something, but the Bengals have never in team history traded a player of Higgins caliber while they are still under full team control. Higgins is not guaranteed to leave in just one year either—it would be shocking if Cincinnati didn't franchise tag him next offseason, should a deal not get done.

They could then trade Higgins for a similar haul. Regardless, it would be truly shocking if the Bengals flipped from the AllBengals reporting and traded Higgins in 2023.

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