3 free agent situations on Cincinnati Bengals for Chicago Bears fans to follow

The Chicago Bears will be looking across the free agent landscape to see what teams have situations that could fit their needs this offseason. One team with interesting decision to make after the Joe Burrow extension is the Cincinnati Bengals. 

What are some areas of the Bengals that fans should pay attention to because some players could be becoming available? 

3. What the Cincinnati Bengals do at wide receiver could impact the Chicago Bears

The two big-name Cincinnati Bengals wide receivers not named Ja’Marr Chase picked the worst time to have the worst years of their careers. It had a bit to do with Joe Burrow going down, but neither Tyler Boyd nor Tee Higgins were effective with him this season, as both appeared to have eyes on free agency. 

Tee Higgins went from 908 yards to 1,091 and 1,029 all the way down to 656 last year. Injuries had something to do with it, but he also averaged 1.66 yards per route run, which is well below his career average of 1.89. 

Tyler Boyd had 667 yards, his worst number since 2017. He hit over 800 yards in every year since then. Boyd was also down at 1.15 yards per route run, which is below the 1.46 yards per route run that is his career rate. 

So, the question is whether they depressed their market enough to the point where the Bengals can afford to bring them back or if they depressed their market enough to where they will for sure get to enter free agency. If Higgins had a bigger year, the Bengals would be tempted to franchise tag him. Do they let him walk to the highest bidder?

Tyler Boyd would be a different style of slot receiver than Darnell Mooney, but even Boyd, at his worst, was more efficient than Mooney last year. Does he fit into the Bears' plans? Whether these two get away will be worth watching.