Getty Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins.
You can’t be a professional athlete in 2024 without a deep understanding of the subtweet. When to wield it, when to yield it … when to drop it in the middle of contentious contract negotiations and trade talks.
Embattled Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins showed a deep understanding of how to subtweet with a cryptic post on X on May 21 amid him sitting out OTAs over a contract dispute with his team.
“Folks calling me out my name is crazy work (laughing emoji),” Higgins wrote. “I ain’t did (poop emoji) to yall”
Higgins’ post comes one day after a report from ESPN’s Adam Schefter broke the news about the fifth-year wide receiver’s refusal to sign a franchise tender.
“Bengals WR Tee Higgins still has not signed his franchise tender and is not expected to by next week, per source,” Schefter wrote. “This would make him ineligible to report back to the Bengals in time for their organized team activities next week. Higgins cannot rejoin the team until he signs.”
Cincinnati placed the franchise tag on Higgins on Feb. 26. It would pay him approximately $21.8 million in 2024. Higgins has asked for a trade multiple times after the Bengals refused to meet his demands for a contract extension.
Higgins Would Be Hot Commodity on Trade Market
If the Bengals were to be open to trading Higgins, he would be a hot commodity on the trade market — any contender that needs a WR1 or WR2 option would likely consider making a deal for Higgins.
The problem is the Bengals might not be contenders without Higgins.
Cincinnati quarterback Joe Burrow is back after a season-ending wrist injury in 2023 forced him out for the last seven games. Burrow and Higgins have been an electric combination when both are healthy, and both players were part of the Bengals’ 2020 draft class — Burrow in the first round at No. 1 overall and Higgins with the first pick of the second round at No. 33 overall.
In two seasons with a healthy Burrow, Higgins had back-to-back seasons of at least 70 receptions and 1,000 receiving yards in 2021 and 2022. In seven playoff games over those two seasons, Higgins had 31 receptions for 457 receiving yards and 3 touchdowns, including two touchdowns in a 23-20 loss to the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LVI.
Higgins struggled mightily in 2023 due to his own injuries, which forced him to miss five games, and without Burrow, registering career lows of 42 receptions, 656 receiving yards and 4 touchdowns.
Higgins only had two 100-yard receiving games in 2023 and his best game of the year came in a 34-11 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Dec. 23, when he had 8 receptions for 14o receiving yards and 1 touchdown.
Bengals Planned for Future in 2024 NFL Draft
The Bengals seemed to directly address their future at wide receiver in the 2024 NFL draft by selecting Alabama wide receiver Jermaine Burton in the third round (No. 80 overall).
Burton played his first two seasons at Georgia, where he won a national championship in 2021 and showed flashes of his potential with 26 receptions for 497 yards and 5 touchdowns — a whopping 19.1 yards per reception.
In two seasons after he transferred to Alabama, Burton had 79 receptions for 1,475 yards and 15 touchdowns. Burton led the Crimson Tide with 39 receptions for 798 yards and 8 touchdowns in 2023 — 20.5 yards per reception.