Bengals WR Higgins eager to return vs. Chargers

CINCINNATI — Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins flashed a big smile at his locker before the team took off for Los Angeles.

After three weeks out with a quadriceps injury, Higgins is expected to play Sunday against the Chargers, coach Zac Taylor said after Friday’s practice.

And nobody is looking forward to it more than Higgins is.

“I’m very excited [to] get back out there with the guys,” Higgins told ESPN in his first interview since suffering the injury. “Just sitting there watching, I hate it, you know what I’m saying? Not being able to contribute to help get a win, it sucks. So I’m very excited to go out there and fight.”

Higgins has been a limited participant at practice this week. During the portion of Friday’s practice open to the media, Higgins was in uniform and sported a helmet but did agility and conditioning drills.

“Anything you saw in practice with him doing rehab, doing individual stuff was all stuff we had coordinated all week to make sure that he was in a great spot,” Taylor said. “And right now, we’re in a great spot.”

Higgins first suffered the injury in practice Oct. 25, two days before the Bengals’ loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. The injury continued to linger over the next couple of weeks, he said.

“I was still feeling it,” Higgins said. “But it felt amazing this week, and I’m ready to go.”

The fifth-year wide receiver has had to battle soft-tissue injuries throughout his career. This season, he suffered a hamstring injury days before Week 1 and missed the first two games. He also missed four games in 2023 because of a hamstring injury.

Higgins indicated that he has made consultations to prevent those injuries from happening in the future.

“I thought I was handling it the right way, and then this stuff keeps happening,” Higgins told ESPN. “So I had to go and call people and see what I need to do better or more of. I feel like I’m on the right track right now.”

Before he suffered the quadriceps injury, Higgins was lauded by coaches and teammates for performing at the highest level of his career. Higgins, who is playing on the franchise tag, averaged 80.7 yards per game in the three contests preceding the injury and played a key role in back-to-back wins over the New York Giants and Cleveland Browns.

Taylor said that, despite the extended absence, the team feels confident that Higgins can handle a significant workload in a game Cincinnati (4-6) knows it needs to win to bolster its playoff outlook.

Higgins said the toughest part about not playing has been the losses Cincinnati has sustained in his absence. The Bengals dropped two of the three games he missed.

Before the team left for Los Angeles on Friday afternoon, Higgins told ESPN that he hopes the best for him this year is yet to come.

“Hopefully all the injury stuff is behind me, I’m healthy for the rest of the season, and we can go and try to make that run that we think we can do,” Higgins said.

In other injury news, Bengals offensive tackle Orlando Brown Jr. is expected to be questionable with a lower leg injury, Taylor said. Linebacker Logan Wilson (quadricep) and defensive tackle BJ Hill (knee) are both expected to play against the Chargers.