Tee Higgins really wanted to stay with the Cincinnati Bengals.
There was mixed reporting on how interested the New England Patriots were in the star wide receiver. It didn’t really matter when Higgins signed a four-year, $115 million contract extension with the Bengals at the same time Ja’Marr Chase signed a record extension to keep him in Cincinnati.
NFL contracts can be complicated due to the salary cap and the fact that they are not fully guaranteed. Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio acquired the details of Higgins’ contract Thursday, and it painted a weird picture.
According to the top NFL insider, Higgins’ $20 million roster bonus is not guaranteed but is due five days after signing. The 26-year-old’s base salary of $13.8 million is not guaranteed at signing. In fact, nothing in 2025 is guaranteed. The only true full guarantee at signing is the $10 million 2026 offseason roster bonus.
“The Bengals have, as a practical matter, a year-to-year option,” Florio wrote. “They can pay him $35.9 million for 2025 (if he dresses for every game and earns the $2 million in per-game roster bonuses), and they can move on before the 2026 base salary becomes fully guaranteed. (It’s not guaranteed for injury.)
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“Because the $10 million guaranteed 2026 roster bonus has offset language, they’d likely owe him nothing if they cut him after one year — since he’d likely make more elsewhere.
“As a practical matter, it’s a two-year, $29.45 million per year contract. But they’re not fully committed to year two. It truly could be a one-year, $35.9 million deal.”
Your question about these details should be: Why would Higgins sign this contract? It might really boil down to the 2020 second-round pick’s desire to stay with Joe Burrow and Chase, with whom he shares an agent.
Higgins’ contract pays him more than the franchise tag would this year, and he does have injury insurance. But it’s a simple fact that a team like the Patriots would have paid him more if he desired.
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However, it’s clear Higgins bought into the Bengals’ vision and seemingly was willing to sign an extremely team-friendly deal to be part of it.