Tee is now the only tagged player without a new deal

[Whatever]

(05-17-2024, 04:08 PM)CJD Wrote: To be clear, (almost) any player can be replaced. The Bengals have shown the ability to replace players fairly well, especially at WR, where we have had at least 1 tier 1 receiver every season for the last 25 years.

I'm looking at it from an asset management stand point.

You have Jessie Bates. A tier 1 safety who wants to stay in Cincinnati, and you fail to sign him because of the 2nd year guarantee when everyone in the universe knows that you will not cut them after 1 year, even if it's the worst season in the NFL. Just give him the money.

You have Tee Higgins. A tier 1 (or tier 2, whatever) wide receiver who has shown he can be a #1 receiver (some of his best games are when Chase was injured), and who can make circus catches regularly. You have him on a cheap deal in the 2023 off season where everyone was talking about trading for him.

You don't trade him because "he's too valuable."

Now, it's one year later, and you don't even want to offer him 20M AAV?

If he is so valuable, lock him up or trade him for the first round pick you plan to use to replace him.

We let Bates go and got basically nothing for him. 

If we continue down this embarrassing path, we're going to lose Higgins in 2025 and get nothing for him either.

Either lock up your assets or trade them when their value is at its highest.

The Bengals are sitting on the fence between these two options in the absolute worst way possible.

And they're embarrassing themselves in the process, with two players requesting trades and leaks coming that they are cheaping out on Higgins without any response from the front office.

This is a Super Bowl caliber QB and a super bowl caliber roster at the moment.

I want a Super Bowl caliber front office. One that knows how to manage its assets.

By this rationale, no good player should ever hit UFA.  Their teams should either extend them of just trade them in a their contract year.

Now how commonly are good/star players traded again? How often do they hit UFA?

It's not Madden.