3 Bengals players who could be traded before the season starts

Tee Higgins

Trading Tee Higgins probably isn't in the cards this offseason, especially because Duke Tobin said that he didn't plan to part ways with the former second-rounder. Let's play devil's advocate though.

The Bengals won't be able to pay everyone. Joe Burrow is priority number one and then the Bengals will need to decide who to take care of next between Higgins and Logan Wilson while also keeping in mind that Ja'Marr Chase is due to get paid next offseason.

While Higgins has definitely performed well for the Bengals, an argument could be made that they already have Chase who they need to pay and that could make Higgins expendable. I'm not saying that Higgins is expendable but in the grand scheme of things, is it a smart move for an organization to pay two receivers big-time money? We'll have to see how that plays out.

If a team is willing to part with a first or second-rounder for Higgins, the Bengals would have to strongly consider dealing him. They could find a cheaper receiver to replace him with those picks and then have plenty of money to pay Burrow, Chase, and maybe Wilson as well.

Again, I don't see the Bengals trading Higgins but he's certainly someone who it'd make sense to trade. The team's better option would be to hold off on paying him, slap him with the franchise tag next offseason, and then either get a new deal worked out then or trade him then.