While the public reason for the Bengals’ lack of interest in a deal is that they are still looking to work out a long-term agreement with Higgins, as Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk notes, the optics may be as important to the Bengals as their actual plans for Higgins.

While the Cincinnati Bengals were making a key re-signing and NFL free agency's legal tampering window went wild, the contract sagas for Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins received an update. Said update came from NFL Network's Ian Rapoport,

NFL insider Ian Rapoport gave a positive update on the Bengals’ contract talks with Chase and Higgins, saying he bel

CINCINNATI — The Bengals are hoping to sign Tee Higgins, Ja'Marr Chase and Trey Hendrickson to long-term contracts in the near future. Ari Meirov shared the latest on negotiations and it doesn't sound like anything is imminent.