He gone! Latest surprising Tee Higgins suitor spells doom for Bengals future

The Cincinnati Bengals are in a tough spot as their focus turns to the offseason. They rebounded from their rough start to finish the regular season with a winning record, but wound up just missing out on a playoff berth.

The reason that the Bengals were able to turn things around was their offense. Their defense struggled virtually all year, Zac Taylor did not perform well as the team's head coach, the only thing saving this team was the play of their offense.

Joe Burrow looked like an MVP candidate, Ja'Marr Chase won the Triple Crown, and we can't forget about Tee Higgins, either. Higgins doesn't get much recognition thanks to the dynamic duo of Burrow and Chase, but he had 911 yards and a career-high 10 touchdowns despite missing five games during the season. Higgins played as well as he ever had on a per-game basis, and will now enter free agency looking to cash in.

Burrow and the Bengals would love to keep Higgins around long-term, obviously, but ESPN's Ben Solak expecting the Green Bay Packers to be "in the Tee Higgins hunt" could result in the 25-year-old leaving Cincinnati.

Bengals could lose Tee Higgins if Packers show serious interest

It's important to note that Solak did not do anything more than speculate here. This is not a report, it is merely a possibility. It's a possibility, however, that the Bengals cannot ignore.

The Packers saw their season end frustratingly, falling 22-10 against the Philadelphia Eagles in the Wild Card Round of the NFL playoffs. They looked like a team that could legitimately compete in a stacked NFC North for much of the year, but lost their last two games of the season to fall to the No. 7 seed in the NFC and were overmatched against the Eagles.

One of the biggest needs this Packers team has entering the offseason is in their wide receiver room. The Packers have several solid wideouts for Jordan Love to throw to, like Jayden Reed, Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs, and Dontayvion Wicks, but none of those four receivers profile as true dominant WR1-type of options.

Higgins has been a WR2 in Cincinnati alongside Chase, but he'd be a WR1 with several teams, including Green Bay. He had 911 yards and 10 touchdowns this past season despite appearing in only 12 games. Green Bay's leader in receiving yards was Reed with 857 in 17 games. Tucker Kraft's seven receiving touchdowns led the Packers, also in 17 games. Reed led the team in 2023 with 793 receiving yards and eight touchdowns.

There's no denying that the Packers have talent in their receiver room, but again, they lack the alpha who can take a game over and be a consistent presence for Love. Higgins has that capability and is a player that a team projected to have over $50 million in cap space via Over the Cap absolutely can give a substantial amount of money to.

The Bengals would love to have him back, but they have to pay Chase while also addressing their lackluster defense. Can they really afford to pay Higgins when their offense will presumably be fine without him, and their defense needs as much work as it does? The answer might be yes, but if the Packers come in with a monster offer, it likely is a no.

The fact that Green Bay might be a receiver away from being a legitimate Super Bowl contender and has the money to pay the best one in Higgins spells big trouble for a Bengals team that needs to do big things in the offseason.