If Cincinnati can stay healthier than it did a year ago, the Bengals should once again be in the mix as an AFC contender. A big reason for that optimism is the duo of Higgins<\/a> and Ja\u2019Marr Chase, who were recently ranked by CBS Sports as the best wide receiver pairing in the NFL.<\/p>\n Chase is the bigger star and has established himself as one of the league\u2019s elite players. There\u2019s a reason many consider him the best receiver in football. Higgins, however, continues to prove he\u2019s much more than a complementary piece. When both receivers have been on the field together, Higgins has consistently produced at a level that\u2019s statistically comparable to his All-Pro teammate. Chase may be the more talented receiver, but Higgins has shown time and time again that he\u2019s capable of putting up No. 1 receiver numbers of his own.<\/p>\n CBS Sports\u2019 Jared Dubin explained<\/a> why the Bengals\u2019 duo sits at the top of his rankings.<\/p>\n \u201cChase has led the NFL in targets in consecutive seasons, catching at least 125 balls in back-to-back years \u2013 which only Michael Thomas and Antonio Brown have also done \u2013 and totaling 3,120 yards and 25 touchdowns in those two campaigns while earning first-team All-Pro honors in both years. If he\u2019s not the single-best receiver in the NFL, he\u2019s pretty damn close. And you can make one hell of an argument that he is the best, given the breadth of his skill set. He does everything at an elite level. Higgins is among the best pure X receivers in the league, a contested-catch maven who takes advantage of the one-on-one opportunities that Chase\u2019s presence creates for him on the outside. Higgins\u2019 injury issues are a concern, but he has been extremely productive whenever he\u2019s been on the field. (His 17-game career averages are 78 catches for 1,088 yards and nine touchdowns, for example.)\u201d<\/p>\n Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n Higgins backed that up last season with one of the best years of his career. Despite appearing in only 15 games, he caught a career-high 11 touchdown passes, leading all AFC players and tying for second in the NFL. He also found the end zone in four consecutive games between Weeks 7 and 11, further showing how dangerous he can be in the red zone.<\/p>\n For years, Higgins has been asked to play alongside one of the game\u2019s biggest stars, yet he has never looked out of place. Instead, he\u2019s embraced the role and continued to deliver whenever he\u2019s been healthy. His ability to win contested catches, stretch the field and make difficult plays in traffic has made Cincinnati\u2019s offense nearly impossible to defend when all of its playmakers are available.<\/p>\n CBS Sports ranked the Bengals ahead of every other receiving duo in the league, including the Dallas Cowboys\u2019 pairing of CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens. If Higgins can stay healthy for a full season and Chase continues to perform at his usual level, Cincinnati should once again have the NFL\u2019s most dangerous wide receiver tandem and one of the league\u2019s best chances to make a deep postseason run.<\/p>\n Contact us\u00a0@Clemson_Wire<\/a>\u00a0on X, and like our page on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0for ongoing coverage of\u00a0Clemson Tigers<\/a>\u00a0news and notes, plus opinions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"July 5, 2026, 10:45 a.m. ET Former Clemson standout Tee Higgins is coming off the first Pro Bowl…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":938004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[95878,228,227,256,2296,7,6,4779,119599,98697,96358,95882,95887,97231,95913,96025,98162,96027,96122,95896,95906,96071,95883,96123,95881],"class_list":["post-938003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cincinnati-bengals","tag-accessfree","tag-bengals","tag-cincinnati","tag-cincinnati-bengals","tag-cincinnatibengals","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-oh","tag-sourceclemson-wire","tag-sstssportscollegeclemsonfootball","tag-sstsnfootball","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagamerican-football-conference","tag-tagcincinnati","tag-tagcincinnati-bengals","tag-tagclemson-football","tag-tagclemson-tigers-football","tag-tagcollege-sports","tag-tagjamarr-chase","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagsmg-timely","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tagtee-higgins","tag-typestory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=938003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/938004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=938003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=938003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=938003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783321038_550_87249965007-420.jpg\")