Now the question becomes: Is this a tag & trade situation?
The Bengals are near the most cap space available. 72 mil.
Suppose 50 now
40 with drafted rookies paid with the ten.
Their tackle spot they don't seem happy with yet at the same time the rest of the league sees 3-4 tackles and thinks they're lucky. Regardless how ya view it, there's a decision to be made on Jonah Williams and a potential free agent replacement. That's another ten mil.
30 mil left.
Most fans say re-sign Chase but they won't do that early.
That 30 mil is probably for "who do we NOT want the Titans to steal from us" and a decision on Mixon. They don't appear to have all these big loss free agents either.
I don't see the urge to trade Higgins. Everything is workable as is.
The issue, as I see it, comes back to Chase. He does need to be signed soon and they are pushing Tee off a year with the tag. It'll be pretty tough to afford both in the same year during negotiations. If Tee wants 15 Chase will want 20. If Tee wants 20 Chase will want 25 etc.
I think their goal isn't to trade Tee but to get him to sign a deal and lose the tag
Cap has been updated on OTC and about right, got about $51M after after Tee's tag, would ballpark $42-43M after rookie allocation.
They'll likely address OT in the all-time OT draft, don't see a major FA splurge.
This has been their plan with Tee since last season and it's been obvious to see and they've had cap space carved out to make it work and that was before they got the unexpected bonus of the cap coming in over $10M more then estimates.
I will very much disagree with you that their plan has been to tag and extend Tee. I mean sure if the takes a cheap deal but he's not doing that. The cap space they have now, the way Burrow did his contract, it was always designed this way to put the tag on him and give them another year. In 2025 Burrow's cap hit will go up $17m from this season and Chase's extension or 5th year option will start hogging up a lot more cap.
They'd love to resign Chase today but Jefferson is probably going to hold up the entire upper end WR market up until he signs. Lamb and Chase in particular probably can't wait for him to sign.
I'm not even sure Mixon's roster spot has as much to do with the cap as in if they just want a more explosive runner. They can trim a few million with a pay cut , but I'll again reference the cap increase over expecation which will of course result in higher salaries for everyone but they can keep Mixon if they really wanted to, not sure they want to, not sure how much Joe might interject if he wants him to stay. I just think Mixon's roster status has more to do with then money, but taking less will help his chances.
I do believe the Bengals will trade Tee if the right opportunity comes along. Unlike last season, their GM-Tobin, did not rule it out. I don't think it will happen but it's possible especially if things get acrimonous, though the Bengals can be about as stubborn as it gets. What could he get? Based on trade value charts Tyreek and Davante returned somewhere in the pick 10-12 kind of range, AJ Brown just a hair off but both Tyreek and AJB had fairly cheap(really cheap in AJB's case) one year left on their deals. My guess is Tee would not return a first, perhaps a future first which is devalued over a current, I'm thinking if you look at trade charts the cumulative of what they'd get back would be something in the mid to high second. I'm not so sure the Bengals want to do that vs trying to make a run this year with all 3 but it's possible.
Candidates of interest to trade for him would be your Titans in desperate need of some good young WR's and with $78M in cap space. The Patriots who need almost everything on offense, have $77M in cap space, and a whopping $190m projected space in 2025 which is about $30M more then anyone else. And of course the Panthers who have "just" $34M in cap space, but are probably the most desperate team to get a #1 type WR and don't have a first.
Intermediate: 5 targets, 3 rec, 40 yds, TD
