Tee is now the only tagged player without a new deal

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(05-23-2024, 01:26 PM)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: Yes, the good thing here is that Tee's motivation is to have the best year of his career so he can get the dough he is after.

Does him no good to sit out or not give it his all.

I would actually argue he actually doesn't want to have the BEST year of his career. If he puts up like 1,200 yards/10 TDs, that might make it more likely the Bengals consider franchise tagging him a second time. Then he's got to be healthy and great for a second straight year before hitting FA heading into his age 27 season instead of the 25 of if he hadn't been FT'd this year.

He's really motivated to just have a solid year with maybe one or two games where he's great, while primarily focusing on protecting himself to stay healthy. Pittman Jr got $23.3m/yr and Calvin Ridley in his 30s got $30m/yr and neither put up a better-than-best-year-of-Tee's-career type year.