Tee Higgins Continues to Deliver for the Bengals

The Cincinnati Bengals received one of the most dominant receiving performances of the season on Sunday, as Tee Higgins caught 10 passes for 155 yards and two touchdowns in a 43-36 overtime win over the Tennessee Titans.

 His 155 yards led the NFL in Week 8, and nine of his 10 catches went for 10 or more yards. He scored on 17- and 18-yard catches, with the second tying the game at 36 with 1:17 remaining. That performance earned Higgins AFC Offensive Player of the Week honors, the first weekly award of his career. 

But the game wasn't an outlier. Higgins has been one of the best receivers in the league through seven games, and he has quietly outshone Ja'Marr Chase in a few key areas.

The two have identical stat lines in terms of volume, with each catching 43 passes on 61 targets. However, Higgins has produced far more with those opportunities. He has 726 receiving yards compared to 492 for Chase, a gap of 234 yards, and his 16.9 yards per catch is well above Chase's 11.4. 

That total ranks second in the NFL behind only Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and he is averaging 103.7 yards per game. Chase does lead in touchdowns, six to four, so the comparison is not entirely one-sided.

In my view, Higgins' role is what makes this production so important. Next Gen Stats lists his average target depth at 13.6 yards, compared to 10.6 for Chase, which shows that he is the player stretching defenses downfield. 

That matters because it opens up space underneath for Chase and the rest of the offense, and it gives Joe Burrow a receiver who can win the big plays that swing games. Burrow needed exactly that against Tennessee when the Bengals trailed in the fourth quarter.

I also think the production is sustainable. Higgins is not benefiting from a few big plays, as he has 10 catches of 20 or more yards and a 70.5% catch rate. He is also the only player in the league with three games of 140 or more yards. If he continues at his current rate, he is on pace for about 104 catches, 1,763 yards and 10 touchdowns over 17 games.

Now, Higgins has an opportunity to turn a standout stretch into a career year, and the Bengals will need him to keep playing this way if they want to stay in the race in the AFC.