The Green Bay Packers go into the 2025 offseason with money to spend and some uncertainty at the wide receiver position. With Christian Watson likely out much of the 2025 season recovering from a torn ACL, Romeo Doubs coming off of multiple head injuries, and the inconsistency of Jayden Reed and Dontayvion Wicks, the Packers could explore adding a proven veteran wide receiver this offseason. The best available option is widely considered to be Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins. Should the Packers do it?
Who is Tee Higgins?
Tee Higgins, previously a 2020 second-round pick for the Cincinnati Bengals, is a big and versatile wide receiver heading into his sixth NFL season. Coming out of Clemson, Higgins was not a top-tier athlete. Instead, Higgins was considered to be a very reliable target who used his size well and was very good at catching the football. While he wasn’t a first-round pick, the Bengals thought highly enough of him to take him with the very first pick of the second round.
Over Higgins’ first five years in the NFL (all with Cincinnati), he had become a vital part of the Bengal’s potent offense playing alongside Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase. He has been targeted over 100 times in four of his first five seasons, reached 1,000 yards receiving twice, and even reached double-digit touchdown catches this past season with 10. Additionally, Higgins was an important part of the 2021-2022 Bengals squad that reached the Super Bowl. In that game, Higgins had 100 yards receiving and 2 touchdown catches.
In 2024, Higgins showed some of his best play yet. PFF gave him an overall grade of 88.2, which is 5th amongst qualified wide receivers. Higgins had only 3 drops all season and his quarterback had a passer rating of 119.1 when targeting Higgins. The downside was he only played in 12 games. When he was healthy, he was very good for the Bengals. Some fans may even remember the performance he had in a must-win game against Denver where he had 3 touchdown catches, including the walk-off touchdown in overtime.
Now, the 6’4″, 220 lb wideout heads into his sixth NFL season having just turned 26 years old and with potentially his best football ahead of him. Any team acquiring Higgins would be acquiring him for his age 26, 27, 28, and 29 seasons, which many would say is the prime of most players’ careers. He has shown versatility, having played both on both the boundary and in the slot. Even in the shadow of co-stars Chase and Burrow, Higgins has shown to be a great player in his own right, so much so that PFF has ranked him the #1 available free agent.
How Does Tee Higgins Fit in Green Bay?
Throughout the 2024 season, Green Bay Packers fans saw an inconsistent offense. The wide receivers were dropping the ball, quarterback Jordan Love’s accuracy was shaky, and the passing offense as a whole never seemed to find their groove. Additionally, the guys catching passes were in and out of the lineup from time to time due to injuries or off-the-field issues. Going into 2025, the Packers are expecting to be missing Watson for much of the season. Reed, Doubs, and Wicks will all be back, but none of them took the step forward many people expected last season. To say the Packers could use some wide receiver help would be fair. Adding a proven and reliable wide receiver like Higgins would almost certainly help stabilize the offense and give Jordan Love a go-to guy to look to when things are not going perfectly.
While sometimes frustrating, the offense statistically was better than the average fan might have expected. The Packers finished the season 8th in points scored, 5th in yards, 4th in yards per pass attempt, and 2nd in yards per completion. Higgins, in theory, would help the Packers build upon these already strong numbers. He would have the versatility to line up all over the field, could cause defensive mismatches, and almost certainly become a favorite third-down target for Jordan Love. Head Coach Matt LaFleur would almost certainly love to incorporate Higgins into his offense, especially in the red zone.
From a salary cap perspective, the Packers are one of the many teams who are a fit for Higgins. Per Over The Cap, the Green Bay Packers head into the offseason with just over $40 million in salary cap space. They could move some money around, do some restructuring of other contracts, or move some players to free up more space. The Packers don’t have many free agents of their own they need to prioritize re-signing, but they do have to keep some money set aside for their rookie contracts. Simply put, the Packers have money to spend. The question isn’t can they pull it off, it’s should they pull it off?
What Would It Take To Acquire Tee Higgins?
Tee Higgins enters this offseason as an unrestricted free agent after playing last season on the franchise tag. If he does hit free agency, the Green Bay Packers would likely be competing with 31 other teams to sign him. And it would not be cheap. It’s been widely reported that the 49ers, Patriots, and Commanders are three teams who would be strongly contending for Higgins to sign with them. Not to mention there are teams with more cap space than Green Bay who would be willing to give Higgins whatever he wants.
Spotrac expects Higgins’ market to be around $25.4 million per season (4 years, $101.7 million). PFF predicts Higgins will command around $28 million per season (4-year, $112 million). When top-tier players hit the open market, their value is bound to increase. Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com alluded to teams spending north of $33 million AAV for Higgins’ services. Bottom line – Higgins will not be cheap.
Some recent and comparable contracts (per Spotrac):
| Player | Age | Years | Total |
| Brandon Aiyuk | 26 | 4 | $120 million |
| Amon-Ra St. Brown | 24 | 4 | $120 million |
| AJ Brown | 26 | 4 | $96 million |
| Tee Higgins | ? | ? | ? |
The next question to examine is if the Cincinnati Bengals even allow Higgins to become an unrestricted free agent. They could just re-sign him to a big contract extension themselves. At the same time, they’ve had over a year to do this and Ja’Marr Chase is fully expecting to be rewarded with a contract extension this offseason too. Paying both wide receivers in the same offseason would get tricky. This past season, Higgins did play on the franchise tag. While not common, the Bengals could place the franchise tag on him for a second time, which would cost just over $26 million fully guaranteed.
Burrow and Chase have both expressed publicly their strong desire (almost expectation) to keep Higgins around. The Bengals almost certainly would like to keep the faces of their franchise healthy. They might have to do some salary-cap gymnastics and find a way to move money around to make it work, but that would seemingly please Higgins’ teammates.
The best-case scenario for the Bengals would be to find a way to keep Higgins’ on the team. If they can’t find a way to re-sign him with a new contract, then the franchise tag is their next best option. That said, Higgins likely wants to be paid and deserves a longer-term commitment than playing on the franchise tag again. That could lead him to hold out until the Bengals are willing to give him that commitment or trade him to a team that will. The Bengals likely will not want him to hit free agency where the price of re-signing will go up. They also would run the risk of losing him to another team and their only compensation would potentially be a 3rd round compensatory pick.
If the Bengals decide to franchise tag Tee Higgins for the second time with the hope of extending or trading him, that puts the Packers in a more difficult situation. Not only would they have to offer him top-of-the-market money on a new contract, but they would also likely have to use draft picks to trade for him. For those who remember back to 2022 when the Raiders traded for Davante Adams, the cost for an elite receiver was expensive. Not to mention, Davante was much older at the time.
If the Packers want to acquire Tee Higgins, they are either going to have to commit a lot of money, valuable draft capital, or worse – both – to make it happen. Committing around $30 million per season to Higgins would eat up much of the cap space available and likely be the only significant move the Packers would be able to make this offseason. He is a very good player, some would argue even a great player, but is this the move the Packers should make this offseason?
Should the Packers Make the Splash?
Last season the Green Bay Packers made some huge splashes in free agency by signing All-Pro players Xavier McKinney and Josh Jacobs. Most Packers fans would give those moves a double thumbs-up. It’s not super common for players of that caliber to hit the open market. As great as those two were, their contracts only cost the Packers about $35 million combined in dead cap money last season – similar to what some are expecting Higgins to get. Like Jacobs and McKinney, Tee Higgins is another really good player who could be a game-changer and make sense on this current Packers’ roster. While he hasn’t been selected to a Pro Bowl or All-Pro team yet, he would certainly make the offense better and is just entering the prime of his career. That said, should the Packers try and make this happen? No, they should not.
From the Packers’ perspective, it would certainly be great to add another really good player to a young and up-and-coming offense. Watson and Doubs are both headed into the final years of their rookie contracts so one could argue it would be better to pay Higgings than extend either Watson or Doubs. General Manager Brian Gutekunst covets his draft picks and the team finally has a healthy salary cap again. But to dedicate a significant amount of money and/or draft capital to secure this one player is a big commitment and one that likely doesn’t move the needle enough to justify making. The money and draft capital the Packers would save by not acquiring Higgins has the potential to have a greater impact on the team than Higgins would himself.
Would Higgins be an immediate help to an offensive that never seemed to find their rhythm? Almost certainly. Are his services worth the amount the Green Bay Packers would have to give up? I’m not so sure. While Higgins would be an asset to any team, he is not the superstar that Ja’Marr Chase or Justin Jefferson is but the Packers have to pay him as such. Ultimately, none of us Packers fans know what the Packers front office is thinking or willing to do, but it would be very surprising, almost shocking, to see them make a move like this.
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Born and raised Wisconsinite. Proud dog dad, Packers Owner, and season ticket holder. Go, Pack, Go!
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