{"id":12704,"date":"2025-02-04T12:59:07","date_gmt":"2025-02-04T12:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=12704"},"modified":"2025-02-04T12:59:07","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T12:59:07","slug":"insider-sheds-light-on-new-england-patriots-odds-of-landing-tee-higgins-in-nfl-free-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=12704","title":{"rendered":"Insider sheds light on New England Patriots odds of landing Tee Higgins in NFL free agency"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=788,height=444,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/NFL-Cincinnati-Bengals-at-Pittsburgh-Steelers-25118655.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 33.3vw, (max-width: 768px) 428px, 100vw\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=428,height=241,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/NFL-Cincinnati-Bengals-at-Pittsburgh-Steelers-25118655.jpg 430w, https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=788,height=444,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/NFL-Cincinnati-Bengals-at-Pittsburgh-Steelers-25118655.jpg 788w\" alt=\"Insider sheds light on New England Patriots odds of landing Tee Higgins in NFL free agency\" width=\"788\" height=\"444\" \/><figcaption>Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The New England Patriots enter the 2025 offseason with the most cap space in the NFL, the financial flexibility they need to overhaul the worst roster in the league last season. With more than $100 million to spend, NFL rumors are already connecting the team to wide receiver Tee Higgins.<\/p>\n<p>Higgins, age 26, demonstrated with the Cincinnati Bengals that he can be a high-end playmaker. While he operated as the No. 2 receiver opposite of Ja\u2019Marr Chase, Higgins is still coming off a career-high of 10 touchdowns last season.<\/p>\n<p>Cincinnati managed to keep him out of NFL free agency a year ago by using the franchise tag, but that\u2019s not expected to happen again. It opens the door for the 6-foot-4 receiver to hit the open market, giving New England a shot to land its No. 1 wideout. However, one insider is casting doubt on that happening.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,w_3264,h_1836,x_0,y_7\/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images\/ImagnImages\/mmsport\/patriots_country\/01jjwtfzcrb5k9m2xeb2.jpg\" alt=\"New England Patriots Receive New Major NFL Free Agency Prediction\" \/><\/p>\n<p>During an appearance on 98.3 <em>The Sport Hub<\/em>\u2018s Zolak &amp; Bertrand, senior NFL reporter Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated cast doubt on the Patriots signing Higgins. Breer said that he \u201cdoesn\u2019t see why\u201d Higgins would sign with New England given the state of the franchise and other offers that could be on the table.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Tee Higgins stats (ESPN):<\/strong> 73 receptions, 911 receiving yards, 10 touchdowns, 12.5 yards per reception<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Patriots certainly have the cap room to meet Higgins\u2019 contract demands, with NFL rumors recently pointing to a potential cost of $30-plus million per season. However, there will be plenty of competition with teams with money to spend who can get into a bidding war with New England.<\/p>\n<p>Higgins could re-sign with Cincinnati, staying in a situation he knows he can thrive in while competing with an AFC contender. The Bengals already have more than $46 million in cap space and can easily clear more with a few cap casualties and a Joe Burrow contract restructure.<\/p>\n<p>Outside of Cincinnati, the Washington Commanders could provide Higgins with quarterback Jayden Daniels and use a portion of its $78 million in cap space to land him. Likewise, the Los Angeles Chargers have one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL and more than $60 million in cap space.<\/p>\n<p>Even the Green Bay Packers and Denver Broncos have both the cap space, quarterback and roster to offer Higgins a chance to get paid and compete immediately. While the Patriots have the most cap space and a franchise-caliber quarterback in Drake Maye, they likely won\u2019t be contending in 2025. If the contract offers are close, that could push Higgins to one of the more competitive teams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NFL rumors: A top NFL insider casts some doubt on the New England Patriots signing Tee Higgins in NFL free agency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12705,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cincinnati-bengals"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Insider sheds light on New England Patriots odds of landing Tee Higgins in NFL free agency - Breaking News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=12704\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Insider sheds light on New England Patriots odds of landing Tee Higgins in NFL free agency - Breaking News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"NFL rumors: A top NFL insider casts some doubt on the New England Patriots signing Tee Higgins in NFL free agency.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=12704\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Breaking News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-02-04T12:59:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/GDSR544.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"MrKen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"MrKen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=12704\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=12704\",\"name\":\"Insider sheds light on New England Patriots odds of landing Tee Higgins in NFL free agency - Breaking News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=12704#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=12704#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/GDSR544.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-02-04T12:59:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-02-04T12:59:07+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b503ba061d907097809c4aa8a240af15\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=12704#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=12704\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=12704#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/GDSR544.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/GDSR544.png\",\"width\":1080,\"height\":1080},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=12704#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Insider sheds light on New England Patriots odds of landing Tee Higgins in NFL free agency\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/\",\"name\":\"Breaking News\",\"description\":\"Explore top US sports stories, and live updates\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b503ba061d907097809c4aa8a240af15\",\"name\":\"MrKen\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"MrKen\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?author=2\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Insider sheds light on New England Patriots odds of landing Tee Higgins in NFL free agency - Breaking News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=12704","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Insider sheds light on New England Patriots odds of landing Tee Higgins in NFL free agency - Breaking News","og_description":"NFL rumors: A top NFL insider casts some doubt on the New England Patriots signing Tee Higgins in NFL free agency.","og_url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=12704","og_site_name":"Breaking News","article_published_time":"2025-02-04T12:59:07+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1080,"height":1080,"url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/GDSR544.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"MrKen","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"MrKen","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=12704","url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=12704","name":"Insider sheds light on New England Patriots odds of landing Tee Higgins in NFL free agency - Breaking News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=12704#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=12704#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/GDSR544.png","datePublished":"2025-02-04T12:59:07+00:00","dateModified":"2025-02-04T12:59:07+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b503ba061d907097809c4aa8a240af15"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=12704#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=12704"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=12704#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/GDSR544.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/GDSR544.png","width":1080,"height":1080},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=12704#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Insider sheds light on New England Patriots odds of landing Tee Higgins in NFL free agency"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/","name":"Breaking News","description":"Explore top US sports stories, and live updates","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b503ba061d907097809c4aa8a240af15","name":"MrKen","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"MrKen"},"url":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?author=2"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12704"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12706,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12704\/revisions\/12706"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}