Cincinnati Bengals WR Tee Higgins made noise this offseason with a trade request, but he remains with the team for his fifth NFL season. It may surprise you that Higgins, despite the highlights and physical gifts, has yet to score more than seven touchdowns in a season or reach 1,100 receiving yards.
The price tag on Cincy’s WR2 has dropped this season after a down 2024 — does that make him a fantasy football target?
Tee Higgins’ 2024 Fantasy Outlook
- PPR Fantasy Points: 231 (155 non-PPR)
- Receptions: 76
- Receiving Yards: 1,113
- Receiving TDs: 7
THIS CATCH 🤯#ProBowlVote x Tee Higgins pic.twitter.com/wrZeJlZe1U
— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals)
These are PFN’s consensus projections, correct as of August 16. The most up-to-date projections can be found in our Who Should I Draft Tool.
Should You Draft Higgins This Year?
Drafting a fantasy team really isn’t that much different than grocery shopping.
Do you need another box of Pop-Tarts? Probably not, but how can you pass them up at the sale price?!?
Like many things in life, price sensitivity drives decision-making, and we may be reaching a tipping point in this situation.
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It wasn’t long ago that we were labeling Higgins as a co-star next to Ja’Marr Chase, a thought that is in the past now with a four-round difference in ADP. At 25 years old, are we really sure his best fantasy days are in the rearview?
Our projections essentially match up with what Higgins was giving us, on a per-17 game basis, in 2021-22, his run with a fully healthy Joe Burrow. Over that stretch:
- 84 catches
- 1,201 yards
- 7.4 touchdowns
Everyone remembers Higgins’ air ball (on eight targets) to open last season, but do you remember what came next?
How about a 30.8% target share (40.1% receiving yardage share) with a pair of scores against the top-scoring defense in all the land? Remember that performance? One that occurred with an involved Chase (20.5% target share) and a full-go Burrow (Cincinnati threw 41 passes against 15 rushes)?
The fact that a game like that is in his profile makes a price tag outside of the top 24 receivers appealing to me. You will, of course, need to pay attention to the health of Burrow and monitor the relationship between Higgins and this franchise (his value could swing drastically, in either direction, should he be moved), but that’s only a little bit of homework for a player that could be a difference maker at cost.
Coming off of draft boards in a similar neighborhood are George Pickens, Keenan Allen, Tank Dell, and Christian Kirk.
Pickens and Kirk are being thrust into new roles while Allen and Dell have even more target competition to overcome than Higgins. If you were to draft a pair of running backs in the first 3-4 rounds or take an elite player at a onesie position, Higgins is exactly the type of player I’d be looking for as my WR2.
For those looking to play chess and not checkers, take a look at the schedule. The Bengals play the New England Patriots, Kansas City Chiefs, Baltimore Ravens, and Cleveland Browns during the first seven weeks. Those are all tough matchups and, especially if Burrow is at less than full strength, could result in underwhelming production out of Cincinnati’s offense as a whole.
Could Higgins be available at a further discount come mid-October? Could these already discounted Pop-Tarts now be a BOGO opportunity? Hosting a Denver Broncos team (2023’s sixth-worst scoring defense) team that will be traveling to Cincinnati from Los Angeles while the Bengals have a mini-bye courtesy of a “Thursday Night Football” game in Week 16 is ultra-appealing during the week most fantasy leagues hand out their big prize.
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If you’re playing to win your league, you’re interested in Higgins. Be it during the draft or a mid-season trade, should that early stretch of opponents result in some struggles, you owe it to yourself to monitor this situation.
That’s not to say he doesn’t carry risk, but his combination of talent, role, and quality of teammates is tough to find after you get outside of the first 30 picks — remember, this is still the same player we thought had the potential to push Chase for targets and is now entering his physical prime.
