Chiefs News: Analyst says Chiefs should trade for Bengals’ Tee Higgins

Kansas City Chiefs players will begin reporting to the team’s training camp at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph next Tuesday, July 16 — so on Tuesday, Pro Football Focus writer Thomas Valentine proposed a move every team should make before settling into camp.

Kansas City Chiefs: Trade for Tee Higgins

The Chiefs have long been in the hypothetical market for a receiver despite signing Marquise Brown to a one-year deal in free agency. The Cincinnati Bengals might not be too content with the idea of trading Higgins to a Super Bowl-contending rival — especially when those rivals are the reigning Super Bowl champions — but a long-term contract doesn’t appear to be on the horizon for Higgins. Rather than let him walk, the Bengals could look to move him for future draft picks.

The Chiefs should throw themselves into the sweepstakes. Travis Kelce might not have too many years left in the tank, and Higgins would give Mahomes a legitimate X receiver.

Takeaway

It’s difficult to argue that Higgins wouldn’t be useful in a Kansas City uniform. While he missed five games with injuries in 2023 — his first year gaining fewer than 900 yards — he was still effective. His success rate of 53.9% was solid. His 15.6 yards per catch ranked 10th among wideouts with at least 75 targets. And at 6 feet 4 and 219 pounds, he could play the X role Kansas City has been trying to fill.

But Higgins isn’t a disappointing wideout who is headed into the fourth year of his rookie contract. He’s a former second-round pick who has largely fulfilled his promise after playing through all four years of his initial deal. He’s had the franchise tag placed upon him — and more than three weeks ago, he signed that tag. While it’s true that Higgins has requested a trade, Kansas City is not in a position to pay him the tag price of $21.8 million in 2024 — and probably isn’t interested in negotiating a long-term deal with him.

All of that assumes the Chiefs would even consider giving up the draft capital necessary to acquire a player like Higgins — and that the Bengals would even consider trading him to their AFC rivals.

In this offseason, Kansas City made two significant moves at wide receiver. If the team makes another before training camp, it’s more likely to be for an offensive tackle — or a running back.