Tee Higgins has missed five of 10 games this year due to injury. On Sunday night, he’ll be back from a quad injury that caused him to miss the last three games.
“I’m very excited [to] get back out there with the guys,” Higgins said Friday, via Ben Baby of ESPN.com. “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 suffered the injury in practice on a Thursday last month. It lasted for multiple weeks.
“I was still feeling it,” Higgins said. “But it felt amazing this week, and I’m ready to go.”
Higgins, who is playing under the one-year franchise tag, has no reason to play unless he’s 100 percent. With no security beyond the current season, every practice and every game brings risk of an injury that will derail his free-agency payday in 2025.
“Hopefully all the injury stuff is behind me,” Higgins said, “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 missed the first two games of the season due to a hamstring injury. His presence will make a difference for the 4-6 Bengals. With seven games left, they need to go at least 5-2 to have a shot at making the playoffs. Sunday night’s game against the 6-3 Chargers won’t be easy for the Bengals.
Then again, few games have been easy this year for the Bengals. If they’re ever going to turn things around, the time to get it started is now.
