The Chicago Bears need a No. 1 wide receiver, and a lot of eyes have been looking at Tee Higgins.
Based on big extensions due to Higgins, quarterback Joe Burrow and wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase, fan speculation has deduced that Higgins could be a trade candidate as the odd man out.
And Bears fans are hoping they land his services, but if it were up to Higgins he'd stay in Cincinnati.
"Hopefully for a long time, I plan on being in Cincinnati for a while," Higgins said on NFL Network.
Now Higgins only controls one end of this, the Bengals need to want to keep Higgins as well and there is no discernable reason they wouldn't.
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There are reports the Bengals could trade Higgins if his demands are outrageous, which is true of a lot of players. But they can make the numbers work even with Burrow and Chase, as NBC Sports Chicago's Josh Schrock outlined.
NBC Sports' Peter King isn't ruling out a Higgins trade though, even if the Bengals have the cap space.
“The Bengals might not want to trade Tee Higgins," King told NBC Sports Chicago on Tuesday at Radio Row before Super Bowl XVII. "But they also might not have a lot of great choices because – I think one of the things in football today that people don’t think enough about is that, so Mike Brown, I covered the Bengals my first year covering the NFL in 1984. Not a lot has changed, relatively speaking. They are a family-run business in all ways, and they don’t have a lot of dough.
"They are going to have to find $175 million to put in escrow for Joe Burrow’s contract this offseason. That’s obviously not going to be easy. Then you have to say, ‘How exactly are they going to pay Tee Higgins a long-term deal?’ Even if you could do a bridge this year. Even if he could last one more year, I just don’t know how you’re going to pay Tee Higgins market value when you have to pay Joe Burrow. He’s one I would look at."
Getting that star receiver for Fields is definitely a priority, and general manager Ryan Poles has already attempted to bolster the receiver room by trading for Chase Claypool at the trade deadline.
Fans have seen the leap young quarterbacks have taken when they got a star wide receiver, like Josh Allen with Stefon Diggs for the Buffalo Bills. Or Jalen Hurts with A.J. Brown for the Philadelphia Eagles, who are playing in the Super Bowl. Or even Tua Tagovailoa with Tyreek Hill for the Miami Dolphins.
And they want one for Justin Fields.