If you couldn’t tell from the $115 million contract, Tee Higgins is maybe the most over-qualified WR2 we currently have in the NFL. Though he was limited to just 12 games in 2024, Higgins finished the season with 73 receptions, 911 yards and 10 touchdowns. So, despite the presence of Ja’Marr Chase and his own monstrous target volume, Higgins was a high draft pick in all season-long formats without a second thought. Unfortunately, things have not gone as planned in September.
Part of that is underwhelming performance from Higgins and part of that is factors outside the wideout’s control — namely a Week 2 injury to stud QB Joe Burrow. With the Pro Bowl pivot set to be sidelined for the foreseeable future, can you still start Higgins each and every week in fantasy football?
Tee Higgins Fantasy Outlook
Let’s do a quick run down of Higgins’ first three game logs of the season. In Week 1, as they often do, the Bengals got off to a slow start versus the Browns’ defense — a sluggish showing that now looks more understandable with the element of hindsight. Higgins was held to 33 receiving yards and only four targets. Higgins again struggled in the first-half of Week 2, but was able to salvage his stat line with a 42-yard touchdown catch on a really nice ball from Jake Browning.
Browning did throw three interceptions in Cincinnati’s eventual 31-27 victory over the Jaguars, yet he also completed 21 of his 32 passing attempts for 241 yards and two scores. Browning finished that performance averaging an impressive 9.0 air yards per target. While Browning was still clearly a step-down in talent and ceiling from Burrow, he at least seemed like a Ryan Fitzpatrick archetype of backup — someone who could keep fantasy owners happy with a willingness to air out the football with little remorse.
That’s what made last week’s debacle in Minnesota so unnerving going forward. Not only were the Bengals held to a microscopic 171 total yards of offense, but Browning’s 4.8-yard aDOT was the third-lowest mark of the 32 starting quarterbacks in Week 3. The trickle down effect was a one-catch showing from Higgins, who was targeted just two times overall in the defeat. Woof.
Now, this isn’t our first go-around with Browning. When Burrow was injured in Week 11 of 2023, Browning started the final seven games of that season for the Bengals, completing 70.4% of his passes and producing an impressive 7.7 adjusted yards per pass attempt. He’s far from the worst possible scenario when it comes to second string QBs, and he and Higgins even combined for some very notable games, including a 140-yard performance in Week 16 against the Steelers. We’ve seen what this duo’s upside can look like in a real setting.
Specific to tonight’s matchup with the Broncos, there could also be some reasons for optimism. Denver’s conceded a paltry 5.9 yards per opponent pass attempt this season, yet a huge aspect of that success is Patrick Surtain II, who should be matched up quite a bit with the aforementioned Chase. That could make Browning look more often in Tee Higgins’ direction, a pattern we’ve seen versus the Broncos in 2025, as the WR1 for opposing teams have floundered. Beyond that, in a vacuum, Higgins simply has too much talent to ride the pine in season-long or DFS. He needs more leash than one terrible contest.
