Pressure is on the Bengals’ front office to keep the trio of Higgins, Burrow, and Chase together.
When healthy, Tee Higgins is one of the best wide receivers in the NFL.
Witness Saturday afternoon’s win over the Denver Broncos, in which Higgins finished with 11 receptions for 131 yards and three touchdowns, including the winning score with only about a minute left in overtime.
That brings the season totals for the 6-foot-4, 220-pound Clemson Tigers product to 69 catches, 858 yards, and a career-best 10 touchdowns. And he has done it all despite missing five games with injuries.
For most of the year, people have assumed that this will be the final hurrah in a Cincinnati Bengals’ uniform for Higgins, who is currently playing on the franchise tag. The Bengals are almost certain to make Ja’Marr Chase one of the highest-paid receivers in the history of the sport, and the odds of them bringing Higgins back, as well, are not very good. Or are they?
A report that CBS Sports’ Aditi Kinkhabwala recently shared on social media may provide some hope:
“Tee Higgins told me last week being paid as a WR1 is not necessarily his no. 1 motivator. I’m playing with if not the best, one of the best, QBs. I’m playing with if not the best, one of the best, WRs. That opens up things for me. In this offense, everyone has a chance to be spotlighted.”
In addition, Higgins now shares an agent with Chase, who earlier told Kinkhabwala that Higgins is “the most unselfish person.” Couple that with the public pressure recently put on the front office by Joe Burrow to get a Higgins extension done and all of a sudden the impossible may be possible after all.
Only time will tell.
