Tee is now the only tagged player without a new deal

[Joelist]

(05-13-2024, 03:56 PM)CJD Wrote: The way the Bengals were acting, I thought Higgins and his agent were asking for the moon and stars (think 30M+ AAV), so I thought, "Hey, if he won't accept a 3 year, 75 million dollar contract, just tag him three times. It'll cost the Bengals 79.4 million dollars over those 3 years, but it'll at least give them a possible out after each year if he continues to be injured. Maybe that's why the Bengals aren't willing to pay him what he's worth."

The report that Higgins really only wants approximately what Michael Pittman got (3 years, 70 million dollars, 46 million guaranteed) and that the Bengals had not even approached 20 million AAV is what turned this whole fiasco into an embarrassment.

Now, maybe that report was untrue and was propaganda spread by David Mulugheta to get the NFL fan base on his side but...if that were the case, the Bengals would have been truly idiotic to not at least address the allegation.

Their silence on the matter tells me it is at least mostly true, if not 100% true.

I think the way the Bengals have handled this has been truly shameful.

Not shameful at all. They never play the social media/PR game with really aggressive agents, players or others. To them they don't need to. And I agree. By not playing (especially with someone of dodgy honesty like Mulugheta) the PR game with him they effectively take that weapon out of his hands. I suspect the issue is more the 46 million guaranteed (which would all have to be put into escrow immediately) than anything else. Notice how Burrow structured his deal - there is a boatload of guaranteed money but it is not all at once. Each year a chunk becomes guaranteed which smooths out the impact.