The future for Tee Higgins with the Cincinnati Bengals remains bleak.

As of now, the franchise-tagged star is just trying to get back on the field after missing a second set of games due to another soft-tissue injury this season.

Looking ahead to next offseason, ESPN's Matt Bowen and Jeremy Fowler recently ranked Higgins the No. 1 upcoming free agent in the league and cast doubt on a long-term deal happening:

What we're hearing: There's little to no chance Higgins is in Cincinnati beyond 2024. People I've talked to feel pretty strongly about that, barring a major surprise. A second franchise tag would cost the Bengals around $26.2 million on a one-year rental.

What might be interesting here is that no insider has yet to say that Higgins' latest wave of injuries has his free-agency future in doubt. He missed games to start this year with another hamstring injury, then has missed three in a row right now after injuring his quad-running routes in practice.

One would think that being unavailable so often, consistently, might make teams hesitate to give Higgins a market-resetting contract in free agency.

But for now, it sounds like things remain on the expected track -- the Bengals are unlikely to be able to afford a re-up with Higgins while they still need to pay Ja'Marr Chase and address so many other holes on the roster.

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