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Will the 49ers Sign Bengals Wide Receiver Tee Higgins this Offseason?

Do not underestimate Kyle Shanahan's desire to have a dominant wide receiver.

Grant Cohn

Jan 4, 2025; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins (5) catches a pass against the Pittsburgh Steelers during the first quarter at Acrisure Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Barry Reeger-Imagn Images
Jan 4, 2025; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins (5) catches a pass against the Pittsburgh Steelers during the first quarter at Acrisure Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Barry Reeger-Imagn Images / Barry Reeger-Imagn Images
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The No. 1 free agent on the market this offseason will be Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins. Could the 49ers try to sign him?

On the surface, it wouldn't seem the 49ers could afford another high-priced wide receiver considering they already have Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel. But Deebo Samuel is coming off arguably the worst season of his career and could get traded this offseason, and Aiyuk is coming off a brutal knee injury that could make him much less explosive when he eventually returns.

And that's why the 49ers might want to sign Higgins. They've made two gigantic investments in the position that haven't paid off. Clearly, they want a dominant wide receiver, so why wouldn't they want Higgins?

University of North Carolina football general manager Michael Lombardi seems to like the idea of the 49ers signing Higgins.

"You put Tee Higgins on a team like the 49ers, my Lord. He could end up shining because they have other players around him," Lombardi said. "Brandon Aiyuk would be even better with someone like Tee."

If the 49ers don't sign Higgins, he could end up on a division rival such as the Rams or the Cardinals -- both teams have cap space and a need for a no. 1 wide receiver. At the very least, the 49ers could try to drive up Higgins' price tag for those teams by entering the negotiation.

Do not underestimate Kyle Shanahan's desire to have a dominant wide receiver.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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