Tee Higgins Should Be Benched In Week 4 Fantasy Football And Beyond

With Jake Browning under center, the Bengals’ passing game is collapsing — and Tee Higgins is no longer a reliable fantasy football option heading into Week 4 and beyond.

Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins (5) walks for the locker room after warmups before the first quarter of the NFL Preseason Week 2 game between the Washington Commanders and the Cincinnati Bengals at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Md., on Monday, Aug. 18, 2025. | Sam Greene/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

We got our first look at the Cincinnati Bengals with Jake Browning as their starting quarterback, and it was awful. It was truly terrifying if you own any pieces of the Bengals' fantasy pieces. Worse than we ever could have imagined. Last week, we featured Chase Brown in a similar article, and he had 10 carries for three yards and caught just four passes for 17 yards. This week, we unfortunately have to feature another one of the Bengals' weapons. 

WR Tee Higgins, Cincinnati Bengals 

Based on what we saw this week, we have to significantly downgrade everyone in the Bengals' offense. The combination of Browning and their terrible offensive line is going to crush their fantasy value. Even Ja'Marr Chase only had five catches for 50 scoreless yards. However, we still believe that Chase will have his moments with Browning under center; however, there is no way that Browning can sustain two fantasy-relevant pass-catchers. 

We saw a preview of that in this game with Higgins catching one of two targets for 15 yards. It may not always be that bad, but your expectations moving forward should be that Higgins is an extremely risky flex option.  

Things aren't going to get any easier either. The team's next three games are at the Denver Broncos, home against the Detroit Lions, and on the road against the Green Bay Packers. That is an absolutely brutal schedule. All three of these teams have strong defenses and will absolutely dominate on the defensive line.

The last thing Browning wants to see is three straight games with Nik Bonitto, Aiden Hutchinson, and Micah Parsons chasing him down. Not to mention they all have strong secondaries as well that feature stars like Patrick Surtain II, Brian Branch, and Xavier McKinney. The Bengals are about to go through an absolutely brutal stretch, and things may not get better at any point this season. 

Who To Trade Tee Higgins For In Fantasy Football

If you get any opportunity to trade Higgins, you need to take it. Try to find someone who thinks they are being smart by buying low and sell him. Take what you can get. His value is only going to drop from here. You might still be able to get a guy like Quentin Johnston, Michael Pittman Jr, or even Rashee Rice if his owner is struggling and needs help now. I am generally not one to panic, but it is time to abandon ship on Higgins if at all possible.   

Tee Higgins 2025 Preseason Analysis

Prior to the 2025 NFL season, this is what Senior Expert Shawn Childs had to say about Higgins:

Higgins continues to be a trick-or-treat player. Over the past two seasons, he missed 10 games, making him a challenging player to trust on the fantasy market. In four of his five seasons, the Bengals gave him between 108 and 110 targets, leading to him averaging 4.7 catches for 66 yards and 0.49 touchdowns on 7.3 targets per game (14.24 FPPG in PPR formats – between a top 10 and top 15 wide receiver in production despite missing 16.7% of his career opportunity to injuries. 

In 2023, Higgins was a frustrating and disappointing ride. After not catching any of his eight targets in Week 1, he posted a winning day (8/89/2) against the Ravens in the following matchup. Over his next nine games, Higgins came up short three times (2/21, 2/19, and 2/20) while missing four starts (ribs and hamstring). 

When he returned to game action, Joe Burrow was out for the season. In Week 15 (4/61/2) and Week 16 (5/140/1), Higgins played well with Jake Browning behind center. His season ended in Week 18 with another battle with a hamstring injury. He scored fewer than 10.0 fantasy points in seven of his 12 contests.

Last season, Higgins sat out the first two games with a hamstring issue. He had one elite game (9/83/2) over the next five weeks (29/341/3 on 45 targets), highlighted by double-digit targets in two matchups (10 and 14). A quad issue pushed him to the sidelines again for another three contests midseason. 

From Week 11 to Week 17, Higgins showed his potential on the opposite side of Ja’Marr Chase. He caught 40 of his 59 targets for 517 yards and seven touchdowns, with a high floor in five games (9/148/1, 5/69/1, 5/88/1, 8/58/1, and 11/131/3). His three-week run in the fantasy postseason (24/277/5 – 81.70 fantasy points) helped win league and overall championships.

Over the last three games, Higgins battled knee and ankle issues with no missed time, but he did end the year on a down note in Week 18 (4/53 on five targets). 

Fantasy Outlook: To keep their Super Bowl hopes on a winning path, Cincinnati locked up Higgins for four more seasons for $115 million (two years guaranteed). A WR2 opportunity behind a stud wideout invites favorable coverage on many plays, and he has the size (6’4” and 220 lbs.) and skill set to be a much better player with a full season of games.

Higgins is the 14th wide receiver off the board in 2025, which aligns with the profile I have described in his career path. The fantasy drafter must decide if his injury risk outweighs his ceiling. If Higgins played 17 games last year, he was on pace to catch 103 passes for 1,290 yards and 14 touchdowns on 154 targets. 

In this fantastic game of fantasy football, if it’s too easy, it tends to be the losing path, especially when adding the percentage of combination ownership. Many “wise guys” will try to pair Ja’Marr Chase, Joe Burrow, and Tee Higgins, looking for a difference-maker fantasy stack, especially in BestBall formats. 

In 2024, the combination of Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle, and Tua Tagovailoa didn’t have the same buzz as the Cincinnati star combo, but it was too easy to execute, making it a fade for me. 

In the end, Higgins is worthy of some fantasy share, but I would tread carefully if his ADP rises. A drafter should hope for an 80/1,200/8 season while also understanding that his opportunity should be much higher if on the field for 17 games.

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Clearly, Higgins' value takes a huge hit with Joe Burrow's injury and his preseason lofty expectations are a thing of the past. Fantasy managers will want to highly consider benching him in Week 4 and beyond if they can't acquire any decent players via trade.