If Tee Higgins plays for the Bengals beyond 2024, he’ll become the unprecedented exception for the Bengals.
In more than 30 years of the franchise tag, the Bengals have never kept a player beyond the year in which he was tagged.
Only receiver Carl Pickens got a long-term deal. And he was released after one year. Every other tagged player played for one more year and then left as a free agent.
Now that the window has closed for a multi-year deal, they can restrict him in 2025 by tagging him again, at a 20-percent bump over his $21.8 million franchise-tag salary in 2024. The tag amount for 2025 would be $26.16 million.
With receiver Ja’Marr Chase still waiting for his second contract, it’s highly unlikely that the Bengals would devote that much cap space to Higgins next year.
So this will be it for Higgins. He enters 2024 as a contract year, auditioning for 31 other teams.