Tee Higgins Makes Statement To Bengals Doubters As Team Puts Faith In Jake Browning
The Bengals' top offensive stars aren't listening to any doubters about the 2025 season this early on. Cincinnati is 2-0 on the season and is hoping to get Joe Burrow back from his turf toe injury later on in December.
Tee Higgins, Ja'Marr Chase, and the rest of the team have to play around a .500 level with Jake Browning to make things worthy of a Burrow return in Week 16 or beyond. Higgins doesn't want to hear anyone counting Cincinnati out yet.
"Don't write us off just yet," Higgins said on Thursday. "Obviously, we all know what Jake can do. We've seen what he can do. So we just got to go out there and just keep being us. Keep playing Bengals football and the rest will settle itself."
Higgins just scored his first touchdown of the season from a Browning deep pass on Sunday.
It involved a large chunk of yards after the catch, which Cincinnati will have to keep capitalizing on, given Browning's 6.1 air yards per attempt in 2023 (would've been the lowest in the NFL over the full season) and 9% sack rate.
"It's an opinion," Chase said about the outside doubt after Burrow's injury. "I mean, everybody has an opinion. We really don't care. It's outside noise. We gotta worry about what's in our locker room. Control what we can control, and that's how we're gonna win games."
Cincinnati currently ranks tied for last among all teams in big plays so far (six total, five through the air of 20-plus yards and one on the ground of 10-plus yards).
Now, that's just two games, but Cincinnati can't maintain this 2-0 momentum if it's only posting three big plays per game.
"We just believe in what our foundation is and we just believe in us as a whole, as a team," Higgins said. "So long as we keep together as a team, keep putting our best foot forward, play complementary football, we'll be alright."
— Joe Danneman (@FOX19Joe) September 18, 2025"Don't write us off just yet."
A locker room minute with Tee Higgins ahead of Sunday's game against Minnesota. pic.twitter.com/fDcNtdyG6R
Eagles Blasted for ‘Mistake’ Trading Disgruntled $51 Million Edge Rusher
One thing the Philadelphia Eagles don’t have — at least not through 2 games — is an elite edge rusher.
Which is kind of hard to believe. Because just one year ago the Eagles had at least 2 players who may have fallen in that category in Josh Sweat and Bryce Huff, who they signed to a 3-year, $51.1 million free agent contract in March 2024.
Sweat left to the Arizona Cardinals on a 4-year, $76.4 million free agent contract after leading the Eagles in sacks and winning a Super Bowl.
Huff spent one miserable season with the Eagles and was a healthy scratch in the Super Bowl before he was traded to the San Francisco 49ers in exchange for a conditional 2026 fifth round pick.
Now, the Eagles are being called out for moving too quickly to trade Huff, who made it clear how unhappy he was playing for defensive coordinator Vic Fangio in Philly.
“The Eagles made a mistake,” NFL Network’s Brian Baldinger said. “He’s not a linebacker. He’s a pass rush specialist. He’s gotta put his hand in the dirt. He’s not an outside linebacker like they wanted him to be in Philadelphia … (49ers defensive coordinator) Robert Saleh knows what Huff is. He closed the game out against the Saints like Nick Bosa did the game before. Nick has somebody who can come off the edge opposite of him right now. Huff is better than anybody they had over there at DE the last couple of years.“
Huff Has Looked Sharp With 49ers
Huff has looked like the player he was with the Jets in the first 4 years of his career, when Saleh was his head coach, and he closed out a win over the New Orleans Saints in Week 2 with a strip sack in the fourth quarter.
Through 2 games, Pro Football Focus sees Huff playing like one of the NFL’s very best at his position. His 81.3 overall grade from PFF has him at 15th out of a possible 147 players at his position and his 6 QB pressures are also among the NFL leaders.
It’s a far cry from the player who looked lost in Fangio’s system in Philly and finished with 2.5 sacks and 4 QB hits in 2024 while missing 5 games due to wrist surgery. That was just one year after Huff had career highs of 10.0 sacks and 21 QB hits with the Jets — numbers that landed him his monster deal in Philly.
Huff Took Potshots At Philly Following Trade
After his trade, Huff sounded off on his time the Eagles during an interview with The SFNiners YouTube Channel.
“There’s a plethora of things that went down,” Huff said. “I don’t wanna get into specifics. Being in the league for five years, I kinda knew what it felt like for me to be in a good situation. I gotta look out for myself and do what I think is best. I kind of knew where it was headed fairly early on into the season, probably even training camp if I’m being honest. So when everything popped off, it was just like ‘Yeah, all right let’s get to work.’ “
