Tee Higgins…. Steelers have Interest

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(04-12-2024, 09:34 PM)Bengalbug Wrote: Oh, a top 20 WR in the NFL.  32 teams…  My math must be really bad.  No one is saying he is truly elite,  but he is very much a high end WR and a difference maker.

Speaking of banged up, we should probably talk about Chase too, maybe burrow?

It is the nfl, people get banged up every year.  Tee has played in 14 or more games 3/4 years.

I don't agree with top-20, but even then sorry to break it to you but there's not 32 true #1 WRs in the NFL. Just like there's not 32 starting caliber QBs in the NFL. That doesn't change just because there's 32 teams. 

Chase was hurt for the first time in 5 years in 2022 after playing 17 games in 2021 and played 16 games in 2023. Higgins hasn't made more than 14 starts in a season and he's been in the NFL 4 years. 

Ja'Marr Chase snap count % in his career...
85.44%
71.64%
81.80%
Average: 79.63%

Tee Higgins snap count % in his career...
74.81%
64.60%
68.38%
52.67%
Average: 65.11%

So I will start worrying about Chase too when he starts playing ~15% less snaps per year than he currently is and becomes a guy who plays less than 2/3rd of the snaps in his career like Tee.

We are already starting to talk about Burrow, but he's a QB (and when healthy a top-5 QB) and has already been paid before last year so we're already committed regardless if Burrow is injury prone or not. That doesn't mean we have to then follow that up with giving Tee money knowing he will get hurt because he always gets hurt and we don't even have top-5 upside if he does stay healthy. He's ultimately our #2 WR, that's a high risk relatively-low return bet.


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I get it that Tee is pretty good and he wears a Bengals uniform (for now) so that means we collectively have to overinflate how good he is, I will just put this here. Try to think of Tee if he were on a different team and wasn't dyeing your eyes an orange tint when you look at him...

Through 4 years...
Tee Higgins: 58 games, 3,684 yards / 24 TDs
Juju Smith-Schuster: 58 games, 3,726 yards / 26 TDs

Because of how the rules are, there's really good WRs coming into the NFL every single year now. There's good WRs and then there's true difference makers, and there's very few TRUE difference makers and Tee isn't one of them. He's just very good (when healthy). That's not bad by any means, but it's also not irreplaceable and a luxury as a #2 WR that we need to make do without with the highest paid QB in the NFL and a WR who is much better than him already on the team who will need paid.