Bengals owner addresses WR Tee Higgins' future with team

One of the downsides to having one of the best teams in the NFL is being unable to pay all your talented players. That's exactly what the Bengals are beginning to experience.

Cincinnati already gave quarterback Joe Burrow a five-year, $275M deal last year, and the team will pay three-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase in the near future.

That has left fellow wide receiver Tee Higgins as the odd man out and the reason he requested a trade in March.

Higgins has since come to terms with the fact that he'll be playing for the Bengals this season after they were not interested in entertaining his request.

"I do anticipate it," Higgins told WLWT in April.

However, that doesn't mean Cincinnati is planning to pay the former second-round pick. Owner Mike Brown said he'd love to retain Higgins but that there's only so much money to go around.

"The pie is not going to grow. It's only going to be a certain size, but when you reach a point with your quarterback that you have to pay him a big contract, that takes a disproportionate piece out of the pie," Brown said, via the team's website. "Which means you have less left to pay the others. Sometimes that impacts whether you can get the others signed."

Higgins deserves a payday of his own after registering 257 catches for 3,684 yards and 24 touchdowns since entering the league in 2020, but it seems that may come next offseason from a different team.

"You can't just pay people willy nilly," Brown added. "You're restricted on how much you can pay, and we really like Tee Higgins. We would wish to sign him, but it has to be at a certain level to fit within the cap or it can't be done."

If Higgins has a similar season to the one he had a year ago when he finished with a career-low 42 catches for 656 yards and five touchdowns, the Bengals may be able to convince him to re-sign on a cheaper deal than the one he wants now.

That seems unlikely as of now, however, as the 2024 season is looking more and more like Higgins' last in Cincinnati.