Tee Higgins

Week 4 @ Carolina Panthers
Tee Higgins was apparently "100%" heading into Week 3 and delivered a mediocre 3-39-0 stat line on six targets. We probably could have assumed it would be slow going in his first week with the offense since training camp, but things could look much better here in Week 4. Consider him a WR3 against the Panthers, and most other decent matchups going forward.

Fantasy Upside
After an offseason of rumors about Tee Higgins moving on from the Bengals in one form or another, he is back for at least one last season to catch passes from Joe Burrow. Higgins has a WR22 (2021) and a WR17 (2022) finish on his resume, popping up for 20+ fantasy points on six occasions over that two-year span. With a healthy quarterback under center, Higgins can return to form as a deep-ball threat in an offense that runs through the passing game as its engine.

Fantasy Downside
Even when Burrow was on the field last season, Higgins looked like a shell of himself. He had his own run-ins with injury luck (ribs, hamstring) and registered the second-lowest on-target catch rate of any of the 80 wide receivers who earned at least 50 targets. He had issues with downfield targets as well, finishing 60th in contested catch rate (34.8%) in that same group of qualifiers. If he can't pull the nose up after a difficult season, he will be far closer to a WR4 than a WR2 in fantasy.

2024 Bottom Line
It would be easy to completely throw out Tee Higgins' 2023 season, and your confidence in drafting him in 2024 is likely going to rely on your willingness to do that. If you missed out on Ja'Marr Chase but believe in the Bengals offense this season, that's one such situation where I'd be willing to ignore the '23 outcome(s) and take a stab on Higgins with his lowered ADP. His upside is not as high as it would be if he moved to a new team and out of the shadow of Chase, but he can still return to form and deliver big weeks for fantasy teams willing to take the risk.

Week 16 at Pittsburgh Steelers
Tee Higgins had a huge outing last Saturday with four receptions for 61 yards and two touchdowns. With Ja'Marr Chase out for this week, Higgins moves up to the No. 1 receiver for the Bengals. We expect him to get plenty of targets this week.

Higgins faces the Steelers who are ranked sixth in aFPA to wide receivers. Even though it appears a tough matchup on paper, Pittsburgh has half their starting secondary out for this game which could help the Cincy passing game.

Start Higgins for Week 16 as a WR2. These games seem to usually favor the defenses as evidenced by the earlier meeting where there were only two touchdowns scored.