With over $101.3 million in salary cap space in 2025, Spotrac estimates that no NFL team will have the same amount of power in the offseason as the Commanders, regardless of how the season ends.
That kind of money will enable the Commanders to make some significant free agency moves, the most significant of which should be to get Tee Higgins, a wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals, whom the team should do all in its power to acquire.
With 11 receptions for 131 yards and three touchdowns in a 30-24 overtime victory over the Denver Broncos in Week 17, Higgins, who is only 25 years old, is playing some of his greatest football to yet as the season comes to a close. This victory kept his team’s narrow prospects of making the playoffs alive.
Higgins won the game in OT with his last touchdown. Higgins has 69 receptions for 858 yards and 10 touchdowns in just 11 games this season.
After the victory over the Broncos on December 28, Tyler Lauletta of Sports Illustrated stated, “Wide receiver Tee Higgins was the one who stepped up and answered the call when Cincinnati needed a hero.”
The Bengals refused to pay Higgins after 2023.
The unfortunate thing for the Bengals and their supporters going forward is that it might have turned out to be a decent deal if they had simply given Higgins the sum of money that he was allegedly requesting following the previous season.
The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that Higgins requested a three-year, $70 million contract extension, comparable to the three-year, $71.5 million deal extension that wide receiver Michael Pittman of the Indianapolis Colts signed in February 2024.
Higgins, who is earning $21.86 million in 2024 after fulfilling the terms of his four-year rookie contract worth $8.68 million after the Bengals selected him in the second round (No. 33 overall) of the 2020 NFL selection out of Clemson, was instead given the franchise tag by the team.
Given how well he’s played, Spotrac estimates Higgins’ market value at a five-year, $91.5 million contract that would pay him $18.3 million annually. However, when you take that into account, it would be a very considerable cut from what he’s making this year.
Higgins would receive a more fair offer if he were ranked in the NFL’s Top 10 to Top 15 highest paid wide receivers, thus guaranteeing a salary of $25 million to $30 million annually. A four-year, $100 million contract offer or anything akin to the three-year, $75 million deal Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeVonta Smith got prior to the 2024 season could serve as a starting point.
Without a deep WR room, commanders have won.
Due to the presence of quarterback Jayden Daniels, who has not only been among the NFL’s top rookie quarterbacks in 2024 but also among the league’s finest quarterbacks overall, the Commanders are probably going to be high on Higgins’ list of teams to consider after the season.
The fact that Daniels accomplished this with a group of tight ends and wide receivers who don’t have any standout players save Terry McLaurin should only make Higgins and other players take notice.
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