What's Tee Higgins value

[Whatever]

(06-15-2022, 08:20 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: I've brought that up in other conversations, and it is a topic worth talking about.  There is just no way that the team will be able to keep Burrow, Chase, Higgins, and Boyd together once this round of contracts expire.

The truth is that the team NEEDS to keep a competent OL in front of Joe.  As we've seen with other franchise QBs, he will have to learn to develop his receiving targets in order to keep the cap under control.  Some of those voids won't have to always be filled with developing talent, as some aging veterans might like the opportunity to come and play with Joe Burrow for one last shot at a ring, under a cap friendly contract.

You're right in that it's not realistic to keep those guys together. They won't let Burrow go.  They also aren't likely going to let Chase go.  I put Boyd at 50/50.  He might stay on a relatively team friendly deal.  Higgins best case scenario is they keep him on the FT for a 5th season before he hits FA.

Higgins is very difficult to put a fair dollar figure on at this point.  Folks will point to the fact that he has one year of mid tier WR1 production, but the other side of that coin is that he did primarily facing CB2's and was not the DC's primary focus.  To me, it's very difficult to pay a guy $25+ mil APY like a WR1 when I haven't seen him defended like a WR1 for an appreciable sample size and watched him still produce at that level.  If you took money out of the equation, would you trade Higgins right now for Cooper Kupp?  Davonte Adams?  Stefon Diggs?  Justin Jefferson?  Tyreek Hill?  Mike Evans?  Deebo Samuel?  Terry McLaurin?  

The FA dollars need to go into the OL instead of Higgins as a WR2 for the simple fact that this team has not had success drafting OL for going on a decade.  John Ross aside, the Bengals' track record with Day 1 and 2 picks at WR has been pretty stellar.  I feel a lot more confident in the Bengals drafting a replacement for Higgins than Jonah Williams.