The Cincinnati Bengals don’t often get accused of overpaying players.
That’s a combination of the team’s national reputation and the fact that, generally speaking, the front office is pretty good at juggling their salary cap. They’re never one of those teams in trouble because of bad contracts.
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Still, Bleacher Report’s Brad Gagnon was tasked with naming each NFL team’s most overpaid player and the pick was wideout Tee Higgins:
“For the third consecutive season, Cincinnati’s “other” receiver is the clear-cut “winner” here. Higgins did score a career-high 11 touchdowns in 2025, but he fell short of 1,000 yards for the third year in a row. It’s wild that he’s one of the 12 highest-paid receivers in the league with a $28.8 million AAV. “
On a normal team, the honor might go to someone like Orlando Brown ($19.2 million cap number this year) or BJ Hill ($12.1 million).
But when it comes to roster construction, the Bengals aren’t a normal team. There’s the Joe Burrow-Ja’Marr Chase-Tee Higgins trio to consider.
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Yes, the Bengals would like Higgins to get past some of his nagging injury woes over the years. But he opens up the offense, has scored 21 times over the last two seasons and many teams would be paying him like a No. 1.
Which is to say, the Bengals won’t really complain if Higgins pops up on a list like this.
This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: Bengals accused of overpaying a player most teams would