'It's Gonna Be Hard' - Duke Tobin Discusses Ability to Keep Tee Higgins And Ja'Marr Chase

 Duke Tobin doesn't sound very optimistic about Cincinnati's chances of keeping Tee Higgins and Ja'Marr Chase under contract for years to come.

He discussed the "hard" task of pulling that off with The Enquirer's Kelsey Conway.

"It's going to be hard," Tobin said to Conway. "We feel like we have the resources to do it, but it all depends on how the negotiation goes and whether they're willing to accept wanting to come back at a number that makes sense for everybody. And you know what we do with Tee going forward, I've always been very upfront in my desire to have Tee Higgins on our team. 

"I've never not been upfront about that, and that desire continues, but we have to be able to come together with his representation on what that means and what the right number is for his experience, for his play time, for his production. And let's find something that works for everybody because he is a guy that we want to have here, and hopefully, that can come together, but we have other guys who are trying to take big bites of the apple in other areas, and we're going to have to balance those as we go forward."

Cincinnati can ink new deals with Higgins, Chase, and Trey Hendrickson this offseason if it operates like the rest of the NFL's franchises. But they don't and have shown little budging with their financial operations, outside of paying Joe Burrow top-of-market money.

History says it's a longshot Higgins stays in Cincinnati longterm and Tobin's comments echo that. That is unless he's willing to take a big pay cut compared to his market rate as the clear best free agent available this offseason. The Bengals can always franchise tag him again at around $26 million for one season.