Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins is not present at the start of the team’s mandatory minicamp on Tuesday, prolonging the star wide receiver’s holdout even longer. Ja’Marr Chase’s counterpart is present at mandatory minicamp as both receivers seek extensions in Cincinnati. The price of the extensions has only increased after guys like Justin Jefferson, A.J. Brown, Amon-Ra St. Brown, and Jaylen Waddle upped the market this offseason.
Tee Higgins was franchise-tagged back in March. While players who miss mandatory minicamp are usually subject to fines, Higgins is not, as he has yet to sign his franchise tag. Reports from earlier in the offseason stated that Higgins requested a trade out of Cincinnati to get a new contract. If he does not receive a new contract before that date, Higgins will likely continue his holdout into training camp.
A second-round pick in 2019 out of Clemson, Higgins is coming off a season where when he did play, he played at a high level. But injuries limited his availability, just like they did with Chase. The exact amount that Higgins is hunting is unknown, but it has likely only gone up after a rash of premium, market-setting wide receiver deals in recent months across the entire NFL.
In his career, the 25-year-old Higgins has 3684 receiving yards and 24 touchdowns, creating one of the most fearsome trios in the NFL along with Chase and Joe Burrow. Chase figures to get a monster deal that could exceed Brown’s deal, but he may shoot to become the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history, meaning he could leap Jefferson’s $35 million per year.
It will be tough for the Bengals to accommodate a massive deal for Chase and pay Higgins on top of that, meaning that they would have to choose between their two dynamic, star wide receivers since both want new deals.