The Bengals plan to use the franchise tag on Tee Higgins?

This sucks if true I was hoping he would go play for a team outside of the division.

 

The 2x tag means a 20% bump, this years tag fo WR is 25 million 693 thousand. So he should be making 30 million plus, they are saying they want to sign him long term alo with Chase and Hendrickson. They can manipulate the CAP, its the guaranteed money that will crimp. A good portion of that (if not all) has to be put in escrow, you can be a billionaire on paper but that's a lot of cash to come up with.

 

The Bengals have a little over $46 million in salary cap space. They can save a few million by resigning Hendrickson, with a lower cap hit this year but more guaranteed money down the road, and can do the same with Higgins, but at a minimum it's going to cost them $20 million against the cap.
It's also the final year of Jamaar Chase's contract, so he's another one they can re-sign for a few million in cap savings for this year, but he's getting far below #1 wr pay as it is this year. If they can make their way through this year, they have a ton of cap starting next year.

 

The CAP itself seems to be a revolving door for most teams, what I did notice (at least for this year) is the 'gals dead cap hit is almost nothing. When you have that cleaned up and you are not counting past expenses against the current and future structure it naturally gives you more to work with. Their current issue is trying to keep Burrow happy, putting a franchise tag on Higgons will immediately cost 30 plus million against that 46. As you said if they get to a long term number then it spreads out, but if he commands 30 million a year (that's what they are paying him on the tag, and if its my agent that's where I start), then what will Chase ask for? As you said their CAP is decent and likely can do it, but hard to build that D unless you get better players and coaching.

 

That's a butt load of $$$ for a #2 WR. Holy crap! I mean, I like the guy because he is a local Knoxville (Oak Ridge) but dayum!

 

Chase is expected to get $40 million a year on the open market. Tee could probably be in the $30 million range, since on most teams he would be a #1. And Burrow coming in at $46 million. That's still $9 million less than Dak and CeeDee.
And yes, the Bengals dead money is $357k. The Steelers is $45k. The Ravens is $8.6 million and the Browns is $51.6 million. Along with the $73 million going to DeSean this year, that's almost 45% of their salary cap.

 

Trey Hendrickson will likely want to command payment to get to the T.J. Watt/Josh Hines Allen type of deal; $29 Million APY. That is not including Chases rumored $40 Million APY. Tee Higgins franchise tag is a minimum of $26.172 million.


Even if the Bengals do sign (or tag in Higgins case) all three, that basically leaves them little wiggle room and would have to hit on every draft pick while hoping and praying that their previous draft classes work out. That is also not accounting for the fact that this is also assuming Chase, Higgins and Trey will be able to stay healthy all season long for multiple seasons.

 

Tag and trade is a possibility. The tag costs $26.2 million for Higgins which only puts him in top ten WR salaries

 

A player can really ruin the best laid plans by just not signing the tag. If he holds out on signing, he can direct who he gets traded to and a long term contract.