{"id":17199,"date":"2025-03-12T14:59:17","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T14:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=17199"},"modified":"2025-03-12T14:59:17","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T14:59:17","slug":"breaking-what-mike-gesickis-new-contract-could-mean-for-tee-higgins-future-with-bengals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=17199","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING: What Mike Gesicki’s new contract could mean for Tee Higgins’ future with Bengals"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"What<\/p>\n

The Cincinnati Bengals’ decision to give tight end Mike Gesicki a new three-year deal contract worth $25 million surprised some popular pundits.<\/p>\n

“And\u00a0a lot of\u00a0people have been talking about this this week, but\u00a0they’re\u00a0just f***** because they have to take care of [Ja’Marr] Chase,. They franchise tag [Tee] Higgins,” the Ringer’s Bill Simmons said, via Sports Illustrated. “He’ll\u00a0probably hold out. [Trey] Hendrickson wants a trade.<\/p>\n

“And then\u00a0in the middle of this, they paid $8 million a year for Mike Gesicki. So you guys need to find money, but\u00a0you’re\u00a0also gonna pay this tight end.\u00a0This\u00a0is the easiest position to find anybody for $1 million. I\u00a0don’t\u00a0understand what\u00a0they’re\u00a0doing.”<\/p>\n

ESPN’s Bill Barnwell expressed a similar sentiment.<\/p>\n

\"Bengals<\/p>\n

“Needing to squeeze every dollar out of their budget, the Bengals somewhat inexplicably decided to bring [Gesicki] back on a three-year, $25.5 million contract, paying him $12 million in 2025 in the process,” Barnwell wrote. “Gesicki hasn’t been that caliber of player for the vast majority of his career.”<\/p>\n

Could Mike Gesicki be insurance in case the Bengals trade Tee Higgins?<\/h2>\n

So, why did they do it? After all, it is a whole lot of money to pay for a tight end during an offseason when three of your best players are looking for extensions, and every dollar counts in that department.<\/p>\n

Well, it’s possible that it was an insurance move in case the organization is unable to come to a long-term agreement with Tee Higgins and ultimately opts to trade him. The organization designated Higgins as a franchise player, again, with the stated intention of locking him up long-term, but it remains to be seen if that will actually happen.<\/p>\n

Though he’s technically a tight end, Gesicki basically operates as a big-bodied wide receiver, and paying him to be a top target for Joe Burrow opposite Ja’Marr Chase is a lot cheaper than whatever it will take to lock Higgins up on a long-term deal.<\/p>\n

Perhaps re-signing Gesicki was a way to preemptively appease Burrow, knowing that a potential split from Higgins won’t make him happy.<\/p>\n

Burrow publicly mentioned “Mike G” as a player he would like to see the organization hold onto. Signing Gesicki could be the organization’s way of throwing Burrow a bone before eventually disappointing him by moving on from HIggins.<\/p>\n

This is simply speculative, not sourced reporting, but it certainly feels<\/em> like a trade involving Higgins is more likely following the news of Gesicki’s contract, as opposed to less likely. If the Bengals were serious about getting a deal done with Higgins, wouldn’t they want to do that first before<\/em> spending on, frankly, a less-important player?<\/p>\n

We’ll find out what Cincinnati’s plan is in due time, but for now, it’s hard to read.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Cincinnati Bengals’ decision to give tight end Mike Gesicki a new three-year deal contract worth $25 million surprised some popular pundits. “And\u00a0a lot of\u00a0people have been talking about this this week, but\u00a0they’re\u00a0just f***** because they have to take care of [Ja’Marr] Chase,.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cincinnati-bengals"],"yoast_head":"\nBREAKING: What Mike Gesicki's new contract could mean for Tee Higgins' future with Bengals - 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=17199\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BREAKING: What Mike Gesicki's new contract could mean for Tee Higgins' future with Bengals - Breaking News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Cincinnati Bengals' decision to give tight end Mike Gesicki a new three-year deal contract worth $25 million surprised some popular pundits. 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