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Ben Child
CINCINNATI — The second the phrase was spoken, Bengals large receiver Tee Higgins would not even entertain the thought.
When requested concerning the staff’s potential if Higgins can keep wholesome for a whole season, he instantly pushed again on the qualifying conjunction. After signing a long-awaited contract extension to solidify his standing in Cincinnati, Higgins was clear about his intentions for the upcoming season.
“I plan on staying wholesome,” Higgins mentioned. “Let’s not say ‘if.’ Let’s not try this. It is too early to be doing that. I plan on it.
“After I do, [the offense] undoubtedly might be lethal.”
Final season, Higgins battled a number of soft-tissue accidents. He missed the primary two video games with a hamstring difficulty and three video games in the course of the 12 months with a quadriceps harm. In 2023, a hamstring drawback saved Higgins off the sector for 4 video games.
However the harm historical past did not cease quarterback Joe Burrow from stumping for Higgins to get a contract extension with the Bengals, which Cincinnati obliged this offseason. Higgins signed a four-year cope with Cincinnati value $115 million.
In 12 video games final season, Higgins had 73 catches for 911 yards and a career-high 10 touchdowns. However the superior numbers present simply how necessary he’s to Cincinnati’s offense.
When he was not on the sector final season, the Bengals ranked twenty first within the NFL in Anticipated Factors Added per play, in line with ESPN Analysis. With Higgins on the sector, Cincinnati would have ranked a minimum of fourth within the league in that class.
Final 12 months, Higgins instructed reporters that he deliberate on enterprise the identical research as Inexperienced Bay Packers receiver Christian Watson to find the supply of the accidents. Talking to reporters after Tuesday’s voluntary organized staff exercise, Higgins mentioned he as an alternative opted to investigate the difficulty with David Alexander, his coach who relies out of Miami.
“I checked out it with my coach and we have been doing issues that forestall these accidents occurring,” mentioned Higgins, who declined to get into the specifics of that work.
Nonetheless, the sixth-year participant out of Clemson revealed that there can be a change in his pre-practice routine that emphasizes stretching and fewer pressure on the muscle mass forward of a midweek apply. Higgins indicated that it was much like his midweek apply administration final season that allowed him to play the ultimate seven video games of the season.
Cincinnati is positioned to have one of many NFL’s finest passing assaults given the funding stage lately. Two years after Cincinnati gave Burrow a five-year extension value $55 million a 12 months, the Bengals re-signed Higgins and fellow large receiver Ja’Marr Chase. Chase turned a historic All-Professional season right into a four-year extension value $161 million, which made him the highest-paid non-quarterback in league historical past.
Higgins beloved the potential of becoming a member of Chase as a Professional Bowl choice. Chase, who was drafted a 12 months after Higgins with the fifth general decide, has earned the dignity in every of his first 4 NFL seasons.
However after lacking the playoffs the previous two seasons, Higgins’ major focus is to assist the Bengals win video games.
Mentioned Higgins: “I wish to go do what they paid me to do.”
