Cincinnati Bengals: ESPN columnist advocates trading Tee Higgins to the Commanders

The Cincinnati Bengals are 1-4. There is no escaping the reality this team finds itself in.

Now there's real reason to believe they could make up four games in a row with teams like the New York Giants and Las Vegas Raiders on the horizon.

One could also argue that this team should currently be 4-1 since they have come up a point short in several games. If the Bengals continue to struggle and slip to 1-5 or even 2-5 over the next few weeks, when do you do what's best for the future?

The Tee Higgins trade has been a hot topic over the last year. Higgins is not expected to be a long-term option and is playing on the franchise side since the teams were unable to come to an agreement this offseason.

Higgins, who missed the first two games, returned against the Commanders and managed just 39 total yards.

Now he showed off his skills and ability in the Bengals' Week 5 loss, finishing their contest against Baltimore with 83 yards, nine receptions and two touchdowns.

However, an ESPN analyst believes that while Higgins is valuable, the struggling Bengals should trade him and strengthen their defense.

Here's the reasoning used by ESPN's Ben Solak.

“But if that doesn’t happen, the Bengals need to seriously think about where they are in the life cycle of their team building. The Chiefs traded Tyreek Hill and the Bills traded Stefon Diggs; When your star quarterback on a rookie contract starts hitting the cap, he sometimes has to make do with less expensive veteran pass catchers. These were older players than Higgins, but if Cincinnati isn't willing to pay him (just like the Commanders weren't willing to pay Montez Sweat, the Giants weren't willing to pay Leonard Williams, and the Bears weren't willing to pay Roquan Smith), then it has to trade him while the trade is still good,” Solak wrote.

He's not wrong. If you have one of the worst defenses in the NFL and have a star who is valuable but won't last long-term, trading him makes the most sense.

Unfortunately, given the weakness of the team's interior defensive line, pointing the gun at something like this makes sense, even if it seems like a far-off move right now, especially considering this team has never made moves like this in the past.