Cincinnati Bengals Injury and Practice Report: Tee Higgins Takes Key Step Toward Playing

Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins practiced today for the first time since Nov. 8, when he suffered a hamstring injury.

Higgins has missed the last three games, all losses, but head coach Zac Taylor has sounded optimistic since Friday about the receiver’s chances of returning for the Monday night game at Jacksonville.

Will Tee Higgins Play Monday at Jacksonville

Taylor continued to express optimism about Higgins during his pre-practice news conference today.

“Encouraged. Everything’s progressing as you would hope,” he said. “But of course, we need to get him out there and see him do it and move around a little bit. From that standpoint, we’re in a pretty good place going into what we would call a Wednesday practice.”

It was after Friday’s practice last week after Higgins had been ruled out for the Pittsburgh game. Taylor pushed back on any suggestion that the receiver’s absence was due to the fact that he will be a free agent at the end of the season.

“He did this two weeks and two days ago. That is not that long,” Taylor said. “I think he’s on a good track. I’m encouraged to where he’s progressing to. It feels like it was a long time ago. It was not. He did this on a Wednesday of Texans week. That was 16 days ago.”

MORE: Cincinnati Bengals Depth Chart

“For a receiver, we just want to be mindful,” Taylor added. “So we got the sense we didn’t feel good about him going this week. So, let’s not push him at practice. He’s pushing himself in the rehab process, but there was no reason to integrate him into practice and risk a setback with him doing something away from the trainers.”

Higgins was listed as a limited participant but he said “that’s the plan” when asked about playing Monday night.

Quarterback Joe Burrow, who had surgery on his wrist Monday, was back in the building Wednesday and today he was present at practice with his right arm in a sling and the wrist in a protective wrap.

Taylor has said Burrow wants to remain as involved as possible to help Jake Browning make the transition from backup to starter.

In other injury news, starting cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt also returned to practice after missing the Pittsburgh game and the three practices leading up to it with a quad injury he re-aggravated just before halftime of the Week 11 loss at Baltimore.

Taylor-Britt originally injured the calf in the Week 9 win against Buffalo, but he finished that game and was a full participant in practice the following week.

Linebacker Logan Wilson suffered a sprained ankle in Sunday’s loss to the Steelers, but he was listed as a full participant on the injury report with an ankle/foot designation.

Only players I don’t see are Chidobe Awuzie and Trey Hendrickson.
Zac said Chido is under the weather. Did not mention Trey. pic.twitter.com/5pyKj7H9Nh

— Jay Morrison (@ByJayMorrison) November 30, 2023

The only two players not present at practice during the portion open to the media were cornerback Chidobe Awuzie, who got the start for Taylor-Britt against Pittsburgh, and defensive end Trey Hendrickson.

Taylor said during his news conference that Awuzie was under the weather, but he did not mention anything about Hendrickson.

Hendrickson injured his knee late in the Houston loss on a freak play where Texans wide receiver Noah Brown stumbled while walking backward and fell into him. But Hendrickson was back on the practice field two days later and played in the Thursday night loss at Baltimore.

Update 4:20 p.m.

The Bengals put Browning on the injury report with a right wrist designation even though he was a full participant. While it may seem the team is trolling the league for its investigation into the Burrow wrist injury/deleted picture, Browning did say he felt some cramping in the wrist after the Pittsburgh game.

Hendrickson was given a rest day.

Taylor-Britt also was listed as a limited, along with defensive tackle B.J. Hill (rest), defensive end Sam Hubbard (rest) and offensive lineman D’Ante Smith (knee).

Tight ends Tanner Hudson (finger) and Drew Sample (foot) were on the injury report but were full participants.

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