What Is Bengals Wide Receiver Tee Higgins’ Status for Sunday’s Game Against the Chiefs?

CINCINNATI – With Sunday’s 16-10 loss to the New England Patriots, the Cincinnati Bengals fell to 7-11 games in which wide receiver Tee Higgins either didn’t play or was forced to leave in the first half due to injury.

Now, there is a question of whether he will be back on the field Sunday for the team’s key game against the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium, where another hamstring forced him to exit last year’s Week 17 game. Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said Monday it is too early to know whether Higgins will be available.

“We’ll get to Wednesday and see,” Taylor said.

Tee Higgins Has Missed 5 of Last 10 Bengals Games Due to Hamstring

Higgins suffered the injury in practice Thursday and did not participate in Friday’s practice or Saturday’s walk-through.

“We wanted to see how he felt Friday and Saturday,” Taylor said. “We wouldn’t put him out there (in the game) like that.”

The Wednesday re-assessment also will be the timeline for rookie offensive tackle Amarius Mims (pectoral) and rookie defensive tackle Kris Jenkins (thumb).

Jenkins had surgery on the thumb Friday, and Taylor said at the time it could be possible for Jenkins to play against the Chiefs.

Mims hurt his pectoral on Aug. 10 in the preseason opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but the team has been working him back into practice the last couple of weeks.

“He has been practicing and continues to progress and get better,” Taylor said. “Where he is for this weekend’s game remains to be seen.”

The bigger issue is Higgins because of his importance to the offense and the poor display the unit had Sunday against New England, scoring 10 points while gaining 224 yards.

While Higgins has been on the injury report with a hamstring issue six times in five seasons, he only missed practices until last year. Higgins was inactive for three games in Weeks 9-11, and the Bengals lost all three.

Higgins also missed the season finale against the Cleveland Browns after re-aggravating the hamstring at Kansas City. He also missed a game in October due to a rib injury.

The only other games Higgins has missed due to injury were Weeks 3-4 in 2021 due to a shoulder ailment. Cincinnati won both of those games.

If Higgins can’t go against the Chiefs, it will mean a bigger role for Trenton Irwin, assuming Sunday’s snap counts are any indication.

Against the Patriots, Chase played 40 of 48 snaps while recovering from what he said was food poisoning, while Andrei Iosivas played all 48.

Irwin received the bulk of the snaps among the reserves, playing 30 snaps, while Charlie Jones was on the field for just eight and rookie Jermaine Burton logged four, two of which were on the first two drives of the game.

In five career games against the Chiefs (including the 2021 and 2022 AFC Championship Games), Higgins has 19 catches for 302 yards and two touchdowns.