It's a new day for the Las Vegas Raiders, with Klint Kubiak serving as the team's head coach. After the coaching staff is fully in place, which Kubiak is moving quickly to get done, it'll be on to evaluating the roster and finalizing the plan to address many needs this offseason.
The Raiders will be helped in that roster-building effort by having the third-most effective cap space in the league in addition to 10 total picks in this coming April's draft, including, of course, the No. 1 overall selection.
That level of resources opens all kinds of doors for general manager John Spytek, and Raider Nation will be able to see what he's got as a leader of the football operation without the shadow of Pete Carroll hanging over him.
Trading Davante Adams and Jakobi Meyers during the last two seasons has left the Raiders light on experience in their wide receiver corps. Extending on that premise, they don't have a proven WR1 to help put presumed first overall pick Fernando Mendoza on a course for quick success.
Raiders offered trade target who looks like a WR1 in disguise
As CBS Sports NFL analysts Tyler Sullivan and John Breech talked through five offseason trades that could shake up the league, Sullivan laid out why trading for Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins would be ideal for the Raiders.
"Obviously if you’re the Raiders, you’re trying to give Fernando Mendoza, who we assume is going to be the No. 1 overall pick, as many weapons as possible. Already, it’s pretty nice with Ashton Jeanty and Brock Bowers in that offense, but they are a little thin at wide receiver. So, bringing in someone like Tee Higgins, who has been a 1B over the course of his career, I don’t even consider him a secondary option in that offense.
"He is a legitimate No. 1 wide receiver. He just happens to be in the shadow of arguably the best wide receiver in the NFL in Ja'Marr Chase. You put him in that offense with Klint Kubiak. We’ve seen what he was able to do with Jaxson Smith-Njigba in terms of a league-leading target share. This is someone who could be heavily involved in that offense.”
As Sullivan noted, Higgins has been a "1B" to Ja'Marr Chase's "1A" in Cincinnati for the last five years. He had seemed likely to leave the Bengals as soon as he hit free agency, but a franchise tag in 2024 and a four-year, $115 million deal last March have kept him in the fold.
Higgins has continued to have success in Cincinnati with quarterback Joe Burrow and alongside Chase, as over those last two seasons, he has the fourth-most receiving touchdowns in the league with 21.
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Before Chase arrived in 2021, Higgins topped 900 yards as a rookie in 2020. The only season he hasn't topped 800 yards in his career was 2023, when he missed five games. In 2025, he fell just short of making it five of six seasons in his career with more than 100 targets and at least six touchdowns.
Chase has missed six games since he came into the league. Higgins has topped 100 yards in three of those games as the Bengals' WR1, and at least 140 yards twice, with a touchdown in one of the others and at least eight targets four times.
When Chase missed four straight games in 2022, Higgins' production was a 17-game pace of 110 receptions, 1,577 yards and eight touchdowns. Higgins' contract, however, has to be part of any conversation about the Raiders trading for him.
On the fifth day of the upcoming league year, Higgins' $10.9 million base salary for 2026 becomes fully guaranteed, and a $10 million roster bonus is also due to be paid out. But it's a very team-friendly deal, with no more fully guaranteed salary after this year.
The Bengals need to do a better job allocating their resources toward the defensive side of the ball. Trading Higgins would help accomplish that, and the Raiders can get their WR1 for Mendoza without having to break the bank with (or take on) a top-of-the-market contract right away.
Higgins would transform Kubiak's offense, as the Raiders don't currently have a true No. 1 wideout. Kubiak could employ Higgins in the Smith-Njigba role, allowing him to thrive at every level of the field and helping to keep brackets off Brock Bowers and prevent opponents from stacking the box.