'Great chemistry': Trevor Lawrence would enjoy seeing Tee Higgins in Jaguars uniform

Trevor Lawrence to Tee Higgins for a touchdown!

During their time together at Clemson, that phrase was uttered more than two dozen times.

Through 30 games played together in college at Clemson, Lawrence and Higgins connected on 118 passes for 2,103 yards and 25 touchdowns. The last time the two suited up together was Jan. 13, 2020. Can they do it again more than four years later?

When asked at the Super Bowl about potentially re-uniting with the Clemson-turned Cincinnati Bengals star wideout, Lawrence was excited but admitted he'd be surprised if the Jacksonville Jaguars could land him.

Higgins is slated to be a free agent after being drafted by the Bengals in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft.

Contract talk: Trevor Lawrence 'not concerned' about contract extension with Jaguars, understands process

“I would be very surprised if Cincinnati lets him go, I don’t think that’s going to happen,” Lawrence told Yahoo! Sports this past weekend when asked about Higgins. “But if there was an opportunity, it would be great to play with Tee.

“We’ve texted a little back and forth. The league’s funny, you just never know how things are gonna work out. So many factors are at play, but of course, that’s a guy that I played with, we have a great chemistry, [he's a] great player. I would not be upset at all if he came to Jacksonville.”

Will Tee Higgins make it to free agency? Franchise tag feels likely

The biggest question about any Higgins-Lawrence reunion isn't whether or not the Jaguars would be interested — they almost certainly would be — rather, it's about whether or not the Bengals are interested in seeing Higgins make it to free agency.

Much like Lawrence, the rest of the NFL world is skeptical that he does.

"The writing is on the wall and all expectations are the Bengals will use a franchise tag on Higgins," The Athletic's Paul Dehner Jr., who has been covering the Bengals and the NFL since 2009, wrote recently when addressing the Bengals-Higgins dilemma, marking a March 5 franchise tag deadline as the end of a six-week inflection point between the two parties.

Currently, the franchise tag for a receiver is expected to be around $20.7 million. Dehner points out in his article that there are three options to exhaust before getting to a fourth option to see Higgins hit the open market.

The first option is Higgins gets franchise tagged and plays on the tag. The second option is he gets tagged and a team willing to pay him trades for him. The third option is Higgins signing an extension before the franchise tag deadline.

Simply put, the expectation should be that Higgins will not hit the open market. Burrow's cap figure for the 2024 campaign plays a role, too, Dehner wrote, noting that his cap figure this year will be at $29.7 million. Next year, in 2025, Burrow's cap figure will be at a staggering $46.3 million, likely forcing the team to make tough decisions with contracts.

If there's a year the Bengals can afford a bit of luxury, it's this year.

Jaguars could use Higgins, have dilemmas of their own

The Jaguars certainly could use Higgins. Currently, the only player on the roster with a height-weight profile similar to Higgins (6-4, 219) is Elijah Cooks (6-4, 215), who was an undrafted rookie last season.

No one on the team's current roster competes with Higgins at what he is good at doing, high-pointing the football, winning downfield with size and being an all-world red-zone target. Higgins led the Bengals in receiving touchdowns in the red zone in 2020, 2021 and 2023.

In his career in Cincinnati, Higgins has caught 257 passes for 3,684 yards and 24 touchdowns. He's coming off of an injury-riddled season in 2023, hauling in just 42 passes for 656 yards and five scores. Higgins caught 74 passes in both of the last two seasons and had over 1,000 yards in each season, too.

Though Jacksonville acquiring Higgins would be a major boost to the offense, they still have their own contract situations to sort out, including with a receiver of their own in Calvin Ridley.

Ridley doesn't bring the same skillset that Higgins does. The two are completely different sizes with Ridley playing at 6-foot-1, 190 pounds. Still, Ridley and Higgins are both capable of being dynamic receivers in a given offense.

Last year, after having not played football for nearly two years, Ridley burst back onto the scene with 76 receptions for 1,016 yards and eight touchdowns through 17 games.

Jacksonville's best bet to acquire (or retain) one of those types of players would be to re-sign Ridley after he hits the open market. Banking on Higgins coming free is a pipe dream not worth exploring very much, even if it makes the quarterback smile.

Demetrius Harvey is the Jacksonville Jaguars reporter for the Florida Times-Union. You can follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @Demetrius82.

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This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jaguars' Trevor Lawrence would like to play with Tee Higgins again