ARLINGTON, Texas — Joe Burrow expressed his commitment to assisting the Cincinnati Bengals in keeping wide receiver Tee Higgins, who is poised to enter free agency after this season.
After the Bengals secured a 27-20 victory over the Dallas Cowboys on Monday night, Burrow was tight-lipped on whether he would consider restructuring his contract to facilitate Higgins’ return. When asked about his assurance that the team would retain Higgins, he simply stated, “We’ll see.”
This current season marks Higgins’ fifth year in the league, during which he is playing under a franchise tag valued at $21.8 million. Should the Bengals apply the tag again next season, the amount would increase, although many players have opted not to sign the second tag offer.
Higgins has established himself as a reliable No. 2 receiver, playing alongside Ja’Marr Chase, who was the 2021 AP Offensive Rookie of the Year and currently leads the NFL in receiving yards (1,319) and touchdowns (15). Selected by the Bengals in 2020 during the second round of the draft, Higgins has become an integral part of the team’s offensive strategy.
Despite dealing with hamstring and quadriceps injuries this season, the 25-year-old Higgins remains one of just three NFL receivers to score at least five touchdowns in each of the last five seasons. Burrow remains optimistic about Higgins’ future with the team, stating, “I’m confident we are going to be able to do what it takes to bring Tee back. I know that I am going to do what it takes to get him back. So he can have those talks; those are going to be offseason discussions. I think we are excited about that opportunity.”
The Bengals recently exercised the fifth-year option on Chase’s rookie contract, ensuring his availability through 2025. In a similar vein, Dallas’ star receiver CeeDee Lamb missed the entire 2024 offseason due to a contract dispute while approaching the final year of his rookie contract, ultimately securing a four-year deal worth $136 million late in the preseason.
Burrow himself signed a lucrative five-year extension worth $275 million in 2023, which allows the Bengals the possibility to restructure his deal to generate salary cap space for potential signings, such as Higgins and Chase.
Following the victory over the Cowboys, Burrow was asked if he could fathom a future without Chase, who was his teammate during their successful run in LSU’s 2019 national championship season. Burrow responded, “I don’t want to have that. We feed off each other. We make each other better. We are both really smart players. It is tough to take that away when you have a really smart receiver that you can move around and do a lot of things with. Hopefully we can play together as long as we are in this league together.”
