Bengals continue to play games with Tee Higgins after using the franchise tag

Tee Higgins will be back with the Cincinnati Bengals again next season, but the drama surrounding how a temporary deal got done is still leaving a bitter taste in the wide receiver's mouth ahead of the 2025 campaign.

For the second straight year, the Benglas have used the franchise tag on Higgins after failing to get a long-term contract done with the young star. This time around it'll cost the Bengals over $26 million in order to prevent Higgins from moving on to another team.

Cincinnati has said throughout the process that they want to keep Higgins at all costs, however, as they continue to work on a deal with stud wideout Ja'Marr Chase it's become more and more evident that signing both players to deals would be tougher than expected.

Bengals placed the $26.2 million franchise tag on WR Tee Higgins. This marks the second straight year that the Bengals have used their franchise tag on Higgins. pic.twitter.com/CBENnQe6FM
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 3, 2025

Higgins, for one, didn't love the news on Monday when he simply took to X and said, " Tagged." Part of that could be because it's a second year in a row where Higgins has had to deal with this type of situation, but it does at least reunite him with Chase and quarterback Joe Burrow again.

In reality, the Bengals are clearly better with Higgins in the fold, but as the team works on contracts with other key players like Chase and Trey Hendrickson there will be questions about how much longer the team will be able to dance around Higgins' situation.

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