As the seasons winds down and we start to look to the offseason. some free agency results feel inevitable. Perhaps No. 1 among them is Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins landing elsewhere. Contract talks between the two sides apparently stopped a while ago, and the Bengals have to pay Ja'Marr Chase a top of the wide receiver market contract.
Joe Burrow may want Higgins back very badly, but it's incredibly unlikely to happen at this point.
Despite being in the midst of a second straight down season as he has missed time due to injuries, Higgins is widely considered the best free agent wide receiver available for 2025. Pro Football Focus has him as their No. 1 free agent overall, regardless of position, in their most recent ranking of the top-50 2025 free agents.
Higgins rarely missed playing time over his first three seasons but has, unfortunately, been bitten by the injury bug in back-to-back contract years. That said, when Higgins has suited up so far in 2024, he has consistently produced at a high level. The fourth-ranked player in PFF's Free Agency Rankings last season, Higgins figures to be one of the most sought-after players on the market again in 2025.
Tee Higgins draws unflattering comp to former Lions' wide receiver
A question that could (will) be attached to Higgins as he moves toward most likely being on a new team in 2025 and beyond is "can he be a No. 1 wide receiver?" But PFF, based on their grades and other deeper data from the two years prior to their free agency to draw comps for each free agent in their rankings, gave Higgins a very unflattering comp.
"Top free agent comparison: Kenny Golladay, 2021"
Higgins and Golladay have the same PFF receiving grade over the two seasons before their free agency (though Higgins' second season is not quite complete). Golladay, as expected, has the advantage in average depth of target (15.8 to 12.6) and yards per route run (2.1 to 1.9. Higgins, also as expected, has the edge in yards after the catch per reception (4.8 to 4.1) over the sample span.
When Brad Holmes took over as the Detroit Lions general manager in January of 2021, he had a couple tough decisions on his plate. He honored the desire of quarterback Matthew Stafford to be traded to a team better-positioned to win at that moment. Golladay was a free agent coming off an injury-truncated 2020 season, but the promise of a nearly 1,200-yard, 11-touchdown 2019 season lingered.
The Lions could have franchise tagged Golladay, or they could've given him a notable long-term contract. He was also heading into his age-28 season, so how many peak years did he have left?
Holmes and the Lions decided to let Golladay hit the open market. He got a four-year, $72 million deal from the New York Giants. His first season in New York was a bust (37 receptions for 521 yards, zero touchdowns). He was then quickly on the outs with a new regime in 2022, and that season was even worse as his playing time basically went away. He was a no-brainer cut by the Giants in 2023, and he has not played in the league the last two seasons (with one workout reported over that entire time).
Letting Golladay go was the first sign of how good a general manager Holmes was.
Higgins will be 26 when free agency comes in March, so that's where the comp to Golladay could start to get flimsy. The team that signs Higgins in March will obviously be hoping for better results from their free agent commitment than the Giants got with Golladay, and it's a practical certainly they will get that wish.