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Film Breakdown: Analyzing the Three Areas That Tee Higgins Dominates

The second-year wide-out is closing in on 1,000 yards this season.

Mike Santagata

After a slow start to the season, Tee Higgins has come on strong over the past few weeks. 

He's the first Bengals player since A.J. Green to top the 100-yard receiving mark in three-straight games.

Higgins suffered a shoulder injury early in the season and while he only missed two games, he didn't look like himself. 

The Bengals also seemed to have a feeling out process on just how to use him alongside Ja'Marr Chase and Tyler Boyd. The abundance of weapons to their disposal seemed to leave Higgins as the odd man out, but he has dominated opposing defenses over the past few weeks.

Production Tells The Story

Let’s start with some statistics on Higgins because his season has been a dichotomy. He was limited by the shoulder injury, even after he came back and clearly wasn't at full health.  In Weeks 5, 6, and 7 Higgins never played 70% of the Bengals' offensive snaps. His stats also show a receiver that is still hampered by an injury. During that time he averaged five catches for 49 yards and didn't score a single touchdown. 

His 16 game pace for the first five games of the season was 80 catches, 819 yards, and six touchdowns.

Once Higgins reached full health, it has been a different story. Against the New York Jets, he finally played more than 75% of snaps, showing that he fully recovered from his injury. He had a massive showing against the Jets as they were doing everything in their power to slow down rookie sensation Ja’Marr Chase. Higgins finished with four catches and 97 yards.

His production over this stretch has been overwhelming. He has 32 catches, 556 yards, and 2 touchdowns in the past six games. That extrapolates out to 85 catches, 1,483 yards, and five touchdowns over a 16 game season. While the catches and touchdowns are near what they were early in the year, the yardage has exploded. 

Let’s dive into the film to see what makes the second receiver so valuable and how he has punished defenses.

The Lengthy Vertical Threat

The nice thing for the Bengals this season is that they have not only one, but two vertical threats on the roster. Chase has been an absolute monster when it comes to stretching the field vertically for the Bengals and while Higgins does his work differently, he is still a threat down the field as well. He’s able to win contested catches over cornerbacks with his 6-foot-4 frame and 34-inch arms. This area of his game shines, especially when defenses plan on taking away Chase. When teams move their single high safety over towards Chase, Higgins can work down the field one on one with a cornerback. Higgins’s length, body control, and ability to high point the ball all make him a valuable threat down the field.

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This example shows everything that I just talked about. The Steelers heavily shaded their post safety towards Chase. When Burrow releases this ball to Higgins, the safety is almost on top of the numbers towards Chase which leaves Higgins one on one with James Pierre. Burrow loves to see this matchup and just tosses up a jump ball to his big receiver. Higgins perfectly high points the ball and jumps over the cornerback to come down with the long touchdown. Despite the good position from the corner, he was no match for Higgins when it came to making a play on the ball. 

Again on this play, the defense is shading their post safety towards Chase. This one is not as egregious as what the Steelers did, but the safety is outside of the hashes towards Chase. There is no chance that the safety will be able to get over the top to make a play on this ball intended for Higgins. This means that the corner is on an island with Higgins down the field and Burrow trusts his guy to make a play. Higgins makes good on that trust and jumps up again and high points the ball over the cornerback for a huge play.

Even in this example, the safety is still shaded towards Chase. This is the lightest example of the opposing defense doing that so far, but he is not playing true middle of the field rules. This catch from Higgins is probably the best example of his ability to win vertically down the field. He catches this ball in between the safety and corner on an inside release go for a tremendous touchdown and needed all of the traits that make him such a threat down the field to do so.

Isolation Routes

Higgins moves well for his size and the Bengals have utilized his surprising movement ability on isolation routes. The purpose of these routes is to put Higgins one on one with a corner and let him win with his movement ability. Most of these isolation routes are some type of out-breaking route around 10 to 15 yards down the field. There are different ways to dress these concepts up, but that’s the area of the field where a corner is left without help.

While Burrow doesn't throw the ball to Higgins on this play, this is the prime example of utilizing him on an isolation route. Tee runs a very effective blaze out and this is partially due to the stress he puts on defenders as a vertical threat. The blaze out is a route where the receiver will sell a post before breaking back outside. Right around the 8-yard mark on this play, you can see Greedy Williams open up his hips to run with Higgins down the field on the post route. As Higgins breaks outside, Williams is unable to keep up with him and falls to the ground. Burrow is an aggressive quarterback who wants to punish defenses down the field, so he uncorks one to Chase, but he had Higgins for an easy 15-yard catch. Higgins can make cornerbacks fall down with just his movement ability and that’s truly special at his size.

Here are a couple more examples of the second-year wide receiver toasting his defender on blaze outs:

Just fantastic movement ability for his size. He is creating a ton of separation on these plays and is not utilizing any type of push-off either. Most guys who are as big as Higgins can only create this type of separation on isolation routes with push-offs. However, he can also use his physicality to create separation in this area of the field as well.

He overwhelms the cornerback at the top of the route with his physicality on this deep out. He runs straight at him, pushes into him, and then breaks outside. He never extends his arms which is key for getting away with push-offs as a receiver. The corner cannot handle the physical nature of this route and falls to the ground, but it is uncalled and ends up as just a nice gain to Higgins.

Punishing Defenses Over The Middle

While Higgins has shown his ability to punish defenses on the outside and down the field, it is arguable that his best ability comes in the intermediate middle of the field. This is an area that the Bengals were unable to attack at points this season. Before the game against the 49ers, it felt as if the Bengals left untapped potential in this area. This past Sunday however, the team finally showed that they can attack this area and the man they chose for the job is Higgins. Higgins's ability to catch the ball outside of his frame, size, and route running has made him valuable in this area.

This play should not work for the Bengals. The 49ers are in 2-man, which means that the corners are playing with inside leverage. This concept is designed to open up the zone for Higgins to make a catch between the hook defenders. While Higgins “rounds his route” here this is actually a good route from him. He does not stop to cut on this play which would allow the corner to keep his leverage. Instead, he forces the corner to try to keep up with him as he breaks to the inside on the dig route. 

The cornerback is playing low and to the inside so when Higgins starts to push vertical, the corner has to open his hips to run with him. When Higgins breaks to the inside, the defensive back has to run the route with him and he cannot keep up. Making the perfect 90 degree cut here that gets posted all over social media is not as important as winning against the leverage of the defender. Higgins beats the leverage by continuously moving and forcing the corner to try to keep up.

The 49ers were playing a lot of Tampa 2 coverage which leaves both safeties in the deep halves and a linebacker running down the middle of the field. One way that the Bengals beat this coverage was by using a dagger concept. Dagger is essentially having the inside most receiver run straight down the field vertically to clear out the defense and the receiver outside of him on a dig route. Against Tampa 2, the clear out will take the linebacker and run him out of the play which vacates an area for the dig. In this example, the tight end clears out the linebacker and the running back occupies the underneath defenders as eye candy. Higgins has a ton of room at about 15 yards where he makes his cut.

This is the same concept, but it's dressed up differently. The Bengals use a 3x1 bunch set with Boyd on the clear out. Boyd does his job well as he takes the middle of the field defender and runs him out of the play. Instead of using the running back as the guy to occupy the defenders underneath, the Bengals use their tight end who runs right at the underneath defender and sits. This leaves about six yards of separation for Higgins as he makes his cut on the dig route. Higgins' size over the middle of the field makes him a valuable target here. Easy throw for Burrow and a nice gain for the Bengals.

One area that Burrow excels as a quarterback is his ability to manipulate hook defenders with his eyes and movement. He moves the defender in this example with his eyes and shoulders as he gives a small pump fake. Azeez Al-Shaair moves with the fake as he is trying to get into the passing window. Burrow is then able to quickly reset and fire the ball into Higgins as he enters the area that Al-Shaair vacates. This was not the only time that he has done this exact move though.

On this play, he is working his pump fake against the Steelers linebacker, Devin Bush. After the play fake, Burrow sets his feet, looks, squares his shoulder and winds up as if he is going to throw the ball to his right. However, this is all a clever trick that he is using to open up a window to throw the ball to his big receiver. Bush falls for it and expands out with the fake which creates just enough room for Burrow to complete this pass. This is the best example of Higgins catching the ball outside of his frame as he makes nearly a full extension on the play to bring in the pass.

Higgins is an extremely talented player who is vital to the Bengals' offense going forward. Over the past few weeks, he has been on fire in all facets of the game. His ability to attack deep, outside, and over the middle is crucial to stress the defense. This gives the Bengals answers for any coverage that the defense will play. The best version of the Bengals offense has Higgins doing his work in these areas, while Chase is on the other side ready to capitalize on any deep opportunities. When the protection holds up, these two are a nightmare for opposing defenses.

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Mike Santagata
MIKE SANTAGATA

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