Wide Receiver · Cincinnati Bengals
Tee Higgins — 2026 Fantasy Outlook
Analysis by Shawn Childs, from his 2026 guide — his words, unedited.
The case
- · Higgins scored 21 touchdowns across his last 27 games.
- · He’s never had over 110 targets in a season.
- · Last year, Higgins played nine games with Joe Burrow, but scored on 18.6% of his catches.
- · His ceiling looked more promising in 2021 (74/1,091/6) and 2022 (74/1,029/7) while missing four combined games.
- · Higgins scored over 20.00 PPR fantasy points in three games (6/96/1, 7/121/2, and 6/92/2), but was a liability in five other contests (3/33, 1/15, 3/32, 5/31, and 4/59).
- · In 2024, he posted three impact games (9/83/2, 9/148/1, and 11/131/3).
- · Joe Burrow has been a top quarterback in passing touchdowns three times over the past five years (34, 35, and 43), with his two failures tied to missed games due to injuries.
- · Cinci threw the ball 652 and 640 times over the past two seasons (most in the NFL). Their wideouts ranked first (33) and third (23) in receiving touchdowns over their past two seasons.
Question marks
- · Over his last five seasons, Higgins missed 16 games.
- · In his career, he posted as a zero in PPR fantasy points five times in games with some snaps. Higgins scored fewer than five fantasy points 11 other times in his career.
Shawn's conclusion
At age 27, the fantasy market is still waiting for Higgins to post a difference-maker season by catching 80+ balls with over 1,200 yards receiving and double-digit touchdowns. He checks all of those boxes in his potential, and Higgins plays in the right offense with the winning quarterback.
More on Higgins
Higgins remains one of the most talented and frustrating players in fantasy football, a genuine difference-maker when healthy, and a chronic injury risk that makes him nearly impossible to fully trust. In 2023 and 2024, he's missed 10 games. Over four of his five NFL seasons, the Bengals have funneled him between 108 and 110 targets, producing a remarkably consistent per-game line of 4.7 catches, 66 yards, and 0.49 touchdowns on 7.3 targets (14.24 FPPG in PPR formats). That production sits between a top-10 and a top-15 receiver when he plays.
The 2023 season captured everything maddening about him. He went without a catch on eight targets in Week 1, rebounded with a strong showing against Baltimore (8/89/2), then alternated between productive and invisible over his next nine games (three clunkers – 2/21, 2/19, 2/20) sandwiched around four missed starts with rib and hamstring issues. When Higgins returned, Burrow was done for the year, yet Higgins played two of his best games with Jake Browning at quarterback (4/61/2 in Week 15 and 5/140/1 in Week 16) before a hamstring injury ended his season in Week 18. He scored fewer than 10.0 fantasy points in seven of his 12 appearances.
In 2024, Higgins followed a similar script. A hamstring issue kept him out of the first two games, and he managed just one elite performance (9/83/2) over the following five weeks (29/341/3 on 45 targets) before a quad injury cost him another three games at midseason.
Then came the stretch that reminded everyone what he's capable of. From Week 11 through Week 17, Higgins caught 40 of 59 targets for 517 yards and seven touchdowns, with a reliable floor across five outings (9/148/1, 5/69/1, 5/88/1, 8/58/1, and 11/131/3). His fantasy postseason run (24/277/5 — 81.70 points over three weeks) was championship-winning material. He closed the regular season nursing knee and ankle issues, ending on a quiet note in Week 18 (4/53 on five targets), one last reminder that with Higgins, the fine print always matters.
Over the first 11 games last season, Higgins dodged the injury bug, resulting in 40 catches for 575 yards and seven touchdowns on 70 targets. Scoring helped his double-digit fantasy floor in six of these contests, with the best value coming in two matchups (6/96/1 and 7/121/2). He still had three empty showings over this span (3/33, 1/15, and 5/31).
Higgins sat out Week 13 and Week 15 with concussion issues. His season ended with four productive games (6/92/2, 3/53/1, 4/59, and 6/67/1). The Bengals gave him six targets or fewer in seven of his 15 starts. Higgins set a career high in touchdowns (11) while maintaining his injury risk tag.
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