Perry Knotts/Getty ImagesCincinnati Bengals receive: 2024 second-round pick (No. 48 overall), 2024 seventh-round pick (No. 236 overall)
Jacksonville Jaguars receive: WR Tee Higgins
The Jacksonville Jaguars have been struggling to put enough receiving talent around Trevor Lawrence during the early stages of his promising career. Calvin Ridley fared well as the rising star quarterback's top option last season, but he elected to sign with the Tennessee Titans in free agency this offseason.
Ridley's departure has left free-agent pickup Gabe Davis and incumbent slot wideout Christian Kirk as Lawrence's top targets for 2024. That isn't good enough for a team that already regressed last year, missing the playoffs entirely after orchestrating one of the most exciting postseason victories of all time in 2022.
Jacksonville can't afford to squander more of Lawrence's formative years, especially while he's locked into a rookie-scale contract. While the team has already started working toward a long-term extension for Lawrence, he's only entering his fourth NFL season and has a meager $11.7 million cap hit for 2024.
Giving Davis a three-year, $39 million contract was a decent start to filling out the receiving corps, but Jacksonville needs to do more to feel good about its chances of topping the AFC South in 2024. With $12.7 million in available cap space and options to clear more at their disposal, the Jaguars should find a way to acquire Higgins before or during the draft.
Because the Jags didn't sign Ridley to a new deal, they had to send the No. 79 overall pick to the Atlanta Falcons rather than the No. 48 pick. They can now use No. 48 as trade bait to acquire Ridley's replacement.
It remains to be seen if the Bengals would be willing to take only a mid-second round pick for Higgins—they might want a late-round throw-in as well—but the wideout's market could be cooler than expected due to his impending extension and lack of production in 2023.
If Jacksonville's Round 2 pick is the best offer the table, Cincinnati may be better served locking in a quality prospect for the next few years instead of wringing out one more season from Higgins and losing him for nothing more than a compensatory pick in 2025.
ncG1vNJzZmianJqupLTEq6meqJ%2BnwW%2BvzqZmmqqknrCtsdJoaGlpYWt9coCMramanJVivaKvypqenqtdo7OtedOemKarXai1sMHLnWSbnV2ks6ex0aKloGWWpL9ursSnnpqko2LEs3nTnpxmoJmctKq60g%3D%3D