Tee Higgins

Higgins scored 11 touchdowns in 2025 against roughly 5.9 expected, a +5.1 surplus that signals his career-high TD total was finishing-luck driven and due to normalize toward a more modest total in 2026.

Higgins was managing a heel contusion into the Week 1 2026 opener versus Tampa Bay; the staff has characterized it as minor, and his 2025/2024 track record (0 games missed each year) suggests durability, but soft-tissue issues bear watching.

Playing alongside an elite WR1 in Ja'Marr Chase caps Higgins' target share (18% on the season), keeping his weekly floor touchdown-dependent even with a full-time snap role.

Higgins' four-year extension with Cincinnati removes free-agency and landing-spot uncertainty, locking him into Joe Burrow's pass-heavy, high-PROE offense as the clear No. 2 for the foreseeable future.

Snap share climbed to 87% down the stretch of 2025 with a season-long rising target-share trend, indicating a fully entrenched every-down role rather than a rotational one.

A 13.3 aDOT and 32% deep-target rate give Higgins a weekly boom ceiling in a pass-heavy scheme, and a fully healthy Burrow entering 2026 (after Browning/Flacco starts ate into 2025 efficiency) should only help volume and big-play production.

Cincinnati's only same-position 2026 draft pick was a Day 3 selection (Colbie Young, R4), adding camp-body depth without threatening Higgins' entrenched WR2 role.