Tee Higgins Still Hasn’t Signed Franchise Tag, Not Allowed To Participate In Bengals Activities

Tee Higgins Still Hasn’t Signed Franchise Tag, Not Allowed To Participate In Bengals Activities

let’s talk about t Higgins here a little bit he’s not there hasn’t signed the franchise Tech we all know that he’s a stud he knows he’s a stud there’s a lot of teams I would be loving to have him on their roster right now pay him as a number one guy but I think he even acknowledges the situation that’s going on around him contract wise him not being there big deal how are you guys viewing it in Cincinnati right now with T I think everyone is viewing it as it’s similar to what happened with Jesse a couple years ago Jessie Bates um it’s a lot of similarities there but it’s uh different in that I’ve done a lot of reporting on this situation and the B the main difference from what I’ve gathered is that t Higgins Camp there’s two things here they felt like the initial offer that they were looking for was similar to Michael pitman’s deal with the Colts which I know you obviously know a lot about being in Indianapolis and playing for them H yeah that’s kind of the deal that t Higgins was looking for he was never looking for a deal that would make the highest paid player like he’s fully aware that Jamar Chase is playing as side of him from what I have learned that his his Camp felt that the Bengals initial one-time offer was so low that it couldn’t even move into a conversation about guaranteed money so it was never about guaranteed money and then they never tried again so both sides never tried again because the initial offer was so low and I think from higgins’s Camp the fr frust ation comes in that six of the seven players this year that were franchise tagged got long-term deals done and his side basically believes like the spirit of the franchise tag is to allow more time for a long-term deal to get done but from the Bengals side I mean they got to pay Jamar Chase so you know you can see both sides here right like the Bengals have a lot of people they need to pay I’m sure they love to be able to keep T Higgins but from his side from the players side the franchise tag kind of sucks but it doesn’t really suck that bad when you’re going to get 22 million guaranteed so I do think he will report at some at some point during training camp I don’t anticipate him being in Cincinnati at all this offseason and I think it’ll be kind of similar to what you saw with Jessie Bates where maybe one of those final weeks of the pre-season um he’ll show up but but the thing to watch here is he has had some soft tissue injuries in the past so you wonder how long would he want to be away you know to make sure he’s ready for week one got it I’ll be excited to hear where he’s at who he’s training with I assume there’ll be videos that will come out of him doing something absurd on a field somewhere that is uh 2024 and this whole thing 2020 uh $22 million guaranteed is obviously fantastic I think Michael Pitman got like 27.4 million I think in that uh uh Department which we over here in Indianapolis wish we would have given him more I mean Michael Pitman is our guy I think Cincinnati fans feel that way about t Higgins as well and you said that t Higgins agent says the spirit of the franchise tag is that we can extend negotiation time well as somebody that got franchise tagged uh the spirit of the team doing a franchise tag that is not that is not how now six out of the seven this year felt that way but they’re saying yeah we got you for another year at this top five price without bonuses or anything like that it just seems like Cincinnati is in a new era though like the thought of them having to pay multiple guys just like 5 10 years ago would be like no way but they’re spending money now right this they know what they have over there in Cincinnati it feels like right they know what they have and I think they had to make a decision after jamar’s rookie season we’re we’re gonna have to think two or three years out and I think they decided after he went on to be the offensive Rookie of the Year and Joe he’s Joe’s number one guy uh I think they realized this might be a situation where we might have to let a player who could potentially be a number one receiver out a lot of other teams walk I don’t think anybody feels good about it but I think the way that the Bengals view it as we’re going to try and make a run one more time with tgin and Jamar Chase and Joe and see where the chips fall with that and if that means we have to pay him 22 million for one more season they’re comfortable doing that hell yeah and Duke he said if you like if you guys want T Higgins go get one that’s literally what he said at one point I think it’s the combine go ahead AJ uh what about the other side of the ball Trey Hendrickson his trade request where are they right now where how does Trey feel how does the team feel how do you see it kind of playing out so Trey’s trade request really wasn’t that surprising I guess after learning a little bit more about the situation because last year the B gave him a contract extension he wanted a bigger deal last year heading into the season and the Bengals gave him a one-year addition they bumped him up $5 million in pay to basically say hey we hear you uh we’ll take care of you this year uh and I think that Trey viewed that as okay here’s the Olive Branch but he chose to sign it so he did have a decision if he wasn’t comfortable with that number you know he could have decided not to sign it but he signed the extension and then he went on to another ridiculous year 17 and a half sacks another proo and this offseason his representation in March met with the Bengals and said he’s basically woefully underpaid and we think he should be paid at the top of where all the rest of the edge rushers are and we want you to redo this contract and the Bengals basically said thanks for no thanks and they that was back in March and then that upset Trey and so Trey was he was working out in Cincinnati but he wasn’t really around the team and then right before the draft he wanted to put feelers out to other teams and that’s why he he requested a trade because he was hoping that maybe Cincinnati might get an offer that they couldn’t refuse but at the end of the day kind of similar to what I was just saying about t the Bengals aren’t a better team if they don’t have Trey Hendrickson so again like the Bengals hold all the leverage here but it goes back to Trey basically saying I’m underpaid and I want to be valued more in the Bengals right now it’s success problem your contract is what it is it’s success problems that you have and every team is hoping to have these and obviously that’s why what the Patriots were able to do for so long is so impressive because this happens and they they say like when you win there’s enough to go around but it’s not necessarily always here you know like there it’ll be somewhere else if they continue to win which I think everybody in Cincinnati is expecting and hoping especially with that quarterback uh this is going to continue to happen and Duke Tobin’s just saying uh did you sign it you did sign that deal sweet all right it’s one more year you can either do what you got to do you know because in the modern era it seems like let’s keep people happy but over there they still got some old school Cincinnati Bangals in

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