Bengals are playing the dumbest game with Tee Higgins

You can never expect the Cincinnati Bengals to comply with logic. They do things differently over there. Always have, always will. While they took their sweet time to break Tee Higgins' will to get him to sign his franchise tag for the 2024 NFL season, it will probably end up costing them in the end. ESPN's Jeremy Fowler reported talks of an extension beyond this season have been non-existent.

His intel suggests that the Bengals want to build their core around franchise quarterback Joe Burrow, head coach Zac Taylor and wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase, who Burrow played with at LSU. As far as Higgins is concerned, the Bengals seem to be content with getting him for one more year before he goes to open market. With how tenuous things have been, it would not be shocking if Higgins left.

Simply put, the Bengals are not going to franchise tag Higgins for a second time, as that is too expensive for their taste. Granted, they have already extended Burrow and have two years, plus the franchise tag to get a new deal done for Chase, who they feel is the best wide receiver in football, along with his former LSU teammate Justin Jefferson, who just broke the bank with Minnesota.

Keep in mind that the Bengals let Tyler Boyd walk to reunite with Brian Callahan over in Nashville.

It would not be the least bit shocking to see the Oak Ridge native sign with the Tennessee Titans.

Cincinnati Bengals are playing a most dangerous game with Tee Higgins

How things ultimately went when it came to Higgins' contract situation leads me to believe that the Bengals are at the tail-end of their competitive life cycle. I am not saying that they are going to regress massively, but this is probably the last year they can realistically say they have a legitimate shot at winning the Super Bowl in the foreseeable future. They are poised to hit that reset button.

This is because key players like Jessie Bates III and Boyd have walked in recent years, key coaches like Lou Anarumo and Callahan have either left or will leave for their own teams soon, and other key pieces like Higgins are becoming too expensive. Duke Tobin usually does a great job with the salary cap and building a team, but he can only allocate so many resources to so many elite players.

If we want to view this differently, maybe this was the plan for Higgins all along? They wanted to get four, maybe five great years out of the guy before having somebody else pay top dollar for him. He is maybe a No. 1 receiver on a halfway decent team, but he is firmly No. 2 in town to Chase these days. Look for the Bengals to be all about drafting a wide receiver inside of the top 100 picks next spring.

Higgins will have other suitors beyond Cincinnati and Tennessee heading into free agency next year.