The Bengals are playing top stars like Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, and Tee Higgins this preseason, for the obvious reasons. One of those stars, however, objects to putting words to that reason, even though the Bengals have talked about it. In recent years, Cincinnati has struggled out of the gates, and it’s hurt them in the end. In order to help alleviate that issue, they are trying to get their starters more prepared for action now.
But Higgins doesn’t like that storyline, at least when he was asked about it by Adam Shcein on Mad Dog Sports Radio. “I really don’t like the narrative”, he said, of getting off to a hot start. I just feel like at the end of the day, we’ve just got to execute as a team. The offense has got to complement the defense [and] the defense has got to complement the offense”.
“At the end of the day, it just comes down to executing as a team and finishing the game all the way throughout the fourth quarter”, Higgins said of the Bengals’ recipe for early success this year. “Just stop with the narratives, man. Just go out there and play football”.
All the way back in March, the Bengals hinted at changes to toughen the offseason. “Fixing the slow starts was on the mind of every Cincinnati coach and staff member roaming the halls”, wrote veteran beat writer Paul Dehner Jr. So while Tee Higgins might not like the “narrative”, it’s the worth that produces the execution needed to win games.
Even Bengals players talked about getting off to a faster start relative to playing starters in the preseason like Burrow and Higgins, on the eve of their first preseason game, no less. In other words, Cincinnati is the manufacturer of the narrative.
For what it’s worth, Burrow and Chase picked up where they left off. Higgins only saw one target and recorded no catches in the Bengals’ first preseason game. On Monday, they will play the Washington Commanders, and you can expect to see more extended time from the starters.
Cincinnati started the 2025 season on a 1-4 run, finishing the year 9-8 on a five-game winning streak. Had they won any of those early games, they would have qualified for the playoffs. A year earlier, they started out 1-3. Even with Joe Burrow, they went 5-5 prior to suffering a season-ending injury. After an 0-2 start in 2022, they did manage to rebound, advancing to the conference finals.
When the Bengals made it to the Super Bowl in 2021, the second season for Burrow and Higgins, they began the season 3-1, and then 5-2. Yet they only finished with a 10-7 record, one better than last year when they missed the playoffs. That only strengthens the notion of the value of getting off to a hot start, and the Bengals are trying whatever they can to manufacture it.
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