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Tee Higgins spent close to a month dealing with a quad injury that sidelined him for three games, and his status was up in the air for the bulk of the week preceding Sunday’s showdown between the Bengals and the Chargers. However, an online detective was able to determine he’d be healthy enough to play after stumbling across an interesting trend that appears to have some merit.
2023 was a rough season for Tee Higgins on the injury front, as the wide receiver battled through a rib injury that forced him to miss a game in October and was sidelined for an additional five with a hamstring issue that once again reared its ugly head at the start of the current campaign.
The Cincinnati Bengals were subsequently without their WR2 for the first two games of the 2024 campaign and found themselves short on offense once again after Higgins injured his quad at the end of October.
He reappeared at practice earlier this week following a lengthy hiatus, and while it was initially unclear if he was going to be able to make his grand return against the Chargers this weekend, Bengals coach Zac Taylor confirmed he’ll be healthy enough to suit up while speaking with the media on Friday.
That probably didn’t come as a huge surprise to Andrew Cooper, the host of Fantasy Alarm on SiriusXM who predicted Higgins would be able to play thanks on Thursday to the results of an “investigation” into videos of him arriving at practice this season.
The way Tee Higgins approaches this hill before practice is a key indicator of whether or not he will play.
A quick thread with examples⬇️pic.twitter.com/U3oq4iNiqq
— Andrew Cooper (@CoopAFiasco) November 14, 2024
The Bengals hold practices at a complex located across the street from Paycor Stadium that features a hill leading up to one of the fields, and Cooper somehow noticed there was a correlation between the level of aggressiveness Higgins showed while climbing up it and his eventual injury status after taking a look at a handful of videos that have been taken this season.
The video in the tweet embedded above was captured on Thursday and led Cooper to believe Higgins would be healthy enough to play based on how he attacked it, and that prediction came to fruition when Taylor shared the positive news a day later.
Well done.