Bengals WR Tee Higgins Looking to Reverse Worst 3-Game Start of His Career vs. Denver Defense He Lit Up Last Year

CINCINNATI – The last time the Cincinnati Bengals faced the Denver Broncos, Tee Higgins caught a career-high 11 passes for 131 yards and three touchdowns, including the game-winner in overtime.

In addition to the impressive numbers, Higgins helped the Bengals keep their playoff hopes alive in the Week 17 win.

But what he remembers most about that night isn’t the game-winning touchdown, the other big catches or how the Broncos defended him.

“Coming off the field last year I thought it was probably my last game here,” Higgins said. “That’s the only thing I really was thinking last year was just it might be my last game in the Jungle. Let’s make it a good one.”

Three months later, the Bengals signed Higgins to a four-year, $115 million extension to ensure there would be a lot more games at Paycor Stadium, which is what he wanted all along.

What there hasn’t been – at least through the first three weeks – are any games in 2025 that have looked like the show Higgins put on that night against the Broncos.

That's because Higgins is off to the worst three-game start to a season of his career with just seven catches on 14 targets for 104 yards and a touchdown.

The seven receptions are the fewest of his career in the first three games of a season.

So are the 14 targets.

And his 104 yards are next to last, trailing only his rookie year when he had 75, although Higgins only played 15 snaps without a target in the opener.

If you go with his first three full games of that season, Higgins had 152 yards.

And his one touchdown this year – a 42-yarder from Jake Browning in the Week 2 win against Jacksonville – is tied for the lowest of his career behind the 2024, 2022, 2021 and 2020 seasons when he had two through the first three games.

So essentially, every single receiving number for Higgins is the lowest of his career at this point.

What gives?

“It’s a long season,” head coach Zac Taylor said. “I think you can say that for a lot of our guys. The first three games of the season have just been a strange thing.  You just continue to evolve as the season goes.”

“We don’t look at that as that defines us. That’s what we’re gonna be. Statistically it’s gonna continue on this trend. None of that,” Taylor added. “It’s finding your identity as a team, offense and defense early in the season, trying to find wins while you’re doing that. Things take shape. Everything evens out. We’ve got great players. Over a 17-game regular season, it’s all gonna take its shape and even out.”

Higgins is on pace to have 79 catches for a career-low 589 yards and six touchdowns.

 But like his coach, Higgins is taking the patient approach as the Bengals offense tries to find its footing following the injury to quarterback Joe Burrow.

“I know it’s going to come my way,” Higgins said. “I’ve always been like that. When the ball comes my way, I’ve just got to make a play on it. I’ve got to take advantage of every opportunity I get.”

And maybe, just maybe, ask for a few more.

That was Ja’Marr Chase’s take when he was asked about Higgins’ slow start.

“I always tell Tee, ‘If you want the ball, go F’in ask for it,” Chase said.

Does Higgins have that in him?

Chase: “No, not really. But it’s gonna come out sooner or later.”

Higgins: “I have, but I do it real subtle. I’ll be like, ‘Yo, you see me on this route?’ And the coaches kind of know sometimes by my facial expressions coming off the field.”

That’s as demonstrative as Higgins gets when the ball isn’t coming his way.

It’s one thing when the offense is clicking and the Bengals are winning, but neither of those things were happening last week at Minnesota.

And there have been other similar stretches.

Taylor said there are discussions, but not demands.

“We talk. Not specifically that way, but he and I talk,” Taylor said. “That’s the thing about our guys; there’s not an ego involved in any of this. When it hasn’t gone that way for guys, they really trust where we’ll head.

“There’s been games before where some of our main guys have caught a ball or have been targeted once,” Taylor added. “They know the next game might be 12 targets and 10 catches. We’ve seen that with almost every single guy on our roster. There’s a body of work there that holds up and they don’t have to guess.”

The Broncos employed a man-heavy coverage scheme the last time the teams met.

It’s one of the luxuries the Denver defense has with an elite pass rush and 2024 Defensive Player of the Year Patrick Surtain locking down most teams’ top receiver.

But Higgins and Chase excel against man coverage, or at least they have with Burrow throwing passes.

In addition to Higgins’ big numbers last year against Denver, Chase caught nine passes for 102 yards.

It marked just the second time both receivers topped 100 yards, with the other coming in the 2021 home win against Baltimore when Burrow threw for a franchise-record 525 yards (Higgins had 194, Chase 125).

Surtain, per SportRadar, was responsible for allowing 44 of the 233 yards on seven targets.

Burrow targeted Chase six times with Surtain in coverage, resulting in three catches for 27 yards.

He targeted Higgins one and completed it for seven yards.

The Bengals ate up the rest of the Denver secondary.

But Chase said he expects the Broncos to play the Bengals differently Monday night after the way things went in December.

“You know they’re gonna come steppin’,” he said. “Their whole intent this time is to stop us and not let me and Tee go for 100 yards.”

The biggest focus will be on getting Chase Brown and the running game going Monday night, but it’s not an either-or proposition.

If the run game is effective, things should open more for Higgins to get closer to evening out his slow start.

“Like I said, the ball is eventually going to come to me, and I've just got to make the play because I want to make everybody proud in the city, make my teammates proud and my coaches,” Higgins said. “Every opportunity I get, it's my job to make a play on the ball.”