Bengals: 9 players to protect in a hypothetical expansion draft

Cincinnati Bengals to Protect – No. 7: Tee Higgins

One of the most exciting things for Bengals fans entering this season is how good their wide receiver room is going to be. Tee Higgins is one of the main three in that room and he’s entering the second year of his NFL career after a standout tenure at Clemson.

Higgins excelled during his rookie campaign, grabbing 67 receptions for 908 yards and six touchdowns. Had his quarterback not gone down with an injury in Week 11, Higgins probably goes for over 1,000 yards as a rookie. Yeah, it’s no wonder the future is bright for Higgins.

The Bengals would likely use two of their allotted protection picks on receivers because this team is going to go as their offense goes. Losing Higgins wouldn’t be the end of the world because the team would still have two other really good wide receivers, but he and Joe Burrow have great chemistry, so breaking that up would be silly.

Keeping a young receiver like Higgins on the roster would be in the Bengals’ best interest and that’s why he made the protected players list.