“When you put a fish tank into your wall, how do you feed them?”
Tee Higgins wonders about this as he is splayed out on a couch in the basement of Paycor Stadium, asking the important questions, questions of a man in possession of newfound wealth.
Before his big payday, the Bengals’ wideout had a tank in his Cincinnati home, but the current in the filter was too strong and it blew the jellyfish around like seagrass in a hurricane. (Higgins is obsessed with jellyfish.) Then he turned off the filter, which made his house smell “like crap.” So he switched from jellyfish to eels, then eels to angelfish, then angelfish to a combination of “Nemo and Dory” fish—clownfish and regal tang. In between he needed a second tank to separate the angelfish, which are predatory. He also bought a miniature shark.
But after Higgins signed a four-year, $115 million contract extension on March 18, he purchased a house near his training spot in Florida, where he plans to turn an entire wall there into a jellyfish sanctuary, giving his favorite creatures room to spread their tentacles. That is, if he can figure out how to feed them.
On the sofa to Higgins’s right is Ja’Marr Chase, also contemplating the good problems that come with monster paychecks. The Bengals signed Chase to a four-year, $161 million contract on the same day as Higgins, making the All-Pro wide receiver the highest-paid nonquarterback in NFL history at the time.
After inking their deals, the pair traveled together to Fort Lauderdale and purchased their dream cars at 1 of 1 Motorsports. Higgins bought a McLaren, his favorite car from his days playing the video game Midnight Club. (He declines to say which model he chose exactly, only conceding that it’s “fast as s---.”) Chase purchased a Lamborghini Aventador SVJ, which has been his favorite car since he was a kid playing Need for Speed.
After a shockingly low number of phone calls to arrange the purchases, the pair secured the vehicles, both of which are quite rare, from a 22-year-old who works at the shop and has been in the car business for “about 18 months now.” There are only about 900 of the Lamborghinis in existence. Unfortunately, the one Chase bought doesn’t have a sound system that connects to either of his two cellphones to play music via Bluetooth. So, one of the most expensive cars in existence—the base price for an Aventador SVJ is around $500,000—needed a $50 solution from the nearby Apple Store.
“I had to go buy one of those dongles,” Chase says.
Thankfully, Chase, 25, and Higgins, 26, have each other to lean on as they navigate this complex new world. Chase is getting involved in real estate and estimates he now has more than a half dozen properties. In June Higgins headlined a car show in Knoxville, Tenn., and is modifying his McLaren to optimize speed. (Both receivers bristled when asked if they drove their cars to the facility—an apparent no-no as one doesn’t want to actually put miles on these vehicles.)
And, as it pertains to football, in an era where the running back position has reclaimed a mantle of significance in the NFL, this pair will attempt to validate the Bengals’ decision to assemble the highest-paid wide receiver room in the NFL.
Chase and Higgins do nearly everything together, and that included a tandem negotiation, Step Brothers style, in which Higgins hired Chase’s agent and made it clear that the receivers were a package deal. But it was the depth of their friendship and what it means to the Bengals, both in terms of offensive schemes and locker room vibes, that the team believes will bring the ultimate return on investment.
Last season in the NFL, both passing attempts per game and passing yards per game were at their lowest points since 2008. With the Eagles bullying their way to a championship last year behind their ground game and this being a copycat league, the emphasis on rushing the ball will likely now increase. When asked about the success Philadelphia had last year, Chase took a moment to consider what makes the Bengals and, specifically, he and Higgins special in a world that seems to be changing.
“If somebody hot,” Chase says, “we know what it takes to keep ’em hot.”
Higgins and Chase build an unselfish relationship
It was 2022, Week 18, in the third quarter of a home game against the Ravens. Higgins was laid out near midfield in a position familiar to anyone who has tried to prevent a morning hangover puke session. He was rolled over onto his right side, knees tucked into his chest, hands over his face.
The moment may have seemed insignificant on the surface—the Bengals were comfortably ahead and both Cincinnati and Baltimore had already locked up playoff spots. But Chase and Higgins each identify that play as being instrumental in building their relationship.
“I almost killed him,” Chase says.
“Yeah, let’s talk about that,” Higgins adds later when asked about it separately.
The play unfolded like this: At the line of scrimmage Higgins lined up to the left of quarterback Joe Burrow, and Chase was to his right. Higgins was running an over route at about 15 yards depth that sent him toward the right sideline. Chase, meanwhile, had instructions to run a go ball, meaning a straight-line dash toward the end zone.
The purpose of Chase’s route was to take a defender’s eyes away from Higgins, who, as the design intended, beat Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey and found a swath of open space in the middle of the field. But, unbeknownst to Higgins, Chase made a critical error, beginning his route with a hard step to the inside when he needed to be creating what is called outside leverage in order to fully remove his defender, cornerback Daryl Worley, from the play.
Chase’s misstep sent Worley’s eyes to the backfield. He jammed Chase and looked at the quarterback just in time to see Burrow throwing the ball to Higgins. Worley immediately left Chase, ran and crashed into Higgins’s rib cage at bullet-train speed.
After Higgins regained his breath, Chase walked over on the sideline and said, as he explains, “the only thing you can say.”
“S---. My f---ing bad, bro.”
Higgins appreciated the honesty. “For sure, it goes a long way,” he says.
To understand why this kind of acknowledgment is rare, one must first grasp the dynamics of a typical receiver room. Much like a professional cycling team, there are leaders—the ones who actually get to wear the yellow jersey, do the interviews, make the money and garner the accolades. Then, there are domestiques who, while talented in their own right, are often deployed in a service role that chiefly enhances the performance of the most talented member of the unit.
On that play Chase, coming off a 2021 season in which he had been named not only Rookie of the Year but also an All-Pro, was briefly stepping down into a service role, one that generationally talented receivers don’t always take on with enthusiasm. Steve Smith Sr., a future Hall of Fame wide receiver, calls such decoy assignments “Love Ball” routes, because the receiver has to truly care in order to sell the fake to defensive backs trained to pick up on his cues.
Chase, leaning back against a cinder-block wall a few feet from the visitors’ locker room, wonders how many other top receivers have the kind of mutually supportive relationship with a teammate that he has with Higgins.
“There’s not a lot,” Chase says. “You can’t be selfish, that’s the hardest part, especially when you’re a receiver who always wants the ball. You have to know how to let someone else eat, you know what I’m saying? I expect eight catches and 100 yards from him. My standards and expectations are so high for him.”
Bengals offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher points to two particular “Love Ball” routes from Chase that exemplify his relationship with Higgins.
• At the Jets in Week 8 of the 2021 season with four minutes to go in the third quarter, Chase is lined up to the left of Burrow and Higgins is to the right. Higgins is running a deep over route to the left side and Chase begins to pick apart the Jets’ defensive backfield one by one. A hard stare at cornerback Bryce Hall freezes the nearest defender to Higgins. A breakneck curl back to the left sideline also ties up Ashtyn Davis, the safety who had the best opportunity to tackle Higgins on the play. Higgins was brought down just inside the 10-yard line for a 54-yard reception.
• Against the Browns in Week 7 of the 2024 season, Chase’s gravity was so strong that Juan Thornhill—the only safety over the top of the defense—shuffled to his left a few steps to blanket the star wideout. To Thornhill’s right was Higgins, who caught a quick pass off the line, broke a tackle and, with Thornhill taken out of the play, walked freely into the end zone for a 25-yard score.
Stories of a defense cheating toward the best receiver in the NFL aren’t necessarily surprising, but with Chase and Higgins it’s not just a one-way street. Higgins is enough of a threat to free up Chase as well.
“Tee discourages the defense from always double-teaming or playing Cover 2 to Ja’Marr’s side,” says Pitcher.
Last season Chase led the league with 127 catches, 1,708 yards and 17 TDs, making him only the sixth player in the Super Bowl era to win the receivers’ Triple Crown. According to Pro Football Focus, 30% of Chase’s receptions, 25% of his yards and roughly half of his TDs came on snaps where the defense opted not to send a second defender at him, because Higgins was deemed nearly as threat-worthy.
“Literally any time Ja’Marr makes a play against single coverage you can make a case that he’s only seeing single coverage because Tee is also on the field,” Pitcher says.
Becoming leaders in the Bengals’ wide receiver room
Chase is growing tired of the Griddy. It’s not that his signature touchdown dance is going to end, it’s just that he’s asked to do it … a lot. Such is the burden faced by Mick Jagger being asked to sing “Satisfaction.”
“I’m not a circus animal,” he says.
There’s also the fact that Chase’s version of the dance—a kind of hunched-over shuffle step paired with rhythmic, swinging arm movements—includes a moment in which he points his fingers at the ground. This gesture has once too often crossed over into the NFL’s ridiculously inconsistent—and unfortunately fine-worthy—enforcement of celebrations that appear to reference the use of weapons (Chase, in essence, is being sanctioned for making finger guns when he is in fact not making finger guns). Chase was charged nearly $20,000 for doing a dance in a Week 5 game last year that he had done hundreds of times before.
“When I had the meeting to appeal [the fine], I showed them a video of every other time I was doing it and they’re all the same,” Chase says. “The NFL said, ‘We don’t care.’ That was, like, not cool.”
Here’s another instance in which the Chase-Higgins relationship proves invaluable. Higgins is a dancer. Like, a really, really good dancer. As Chase looks to freshen up his end zone routine, Higgins is “the only person I talk about dance moves with.” The pair exchange dance videos on Instagram. Higgins introduced Chase to and taught him the finer points of the Baltimore Strut and the Down da Way, a dance native to the city of Cincinnati.
“Tee will dance at the club,” Chase says. “Tee is a dancer and women love dancers. I don’t know what the heck that is. I don’t judge, bro.”
A friendship as rich as this one in a team setting will almost always spill over into the critical realm of leadership. The Bengals went into last season with one of the youngest rosters in the NFL, with an average age just over 25. This will be the team’s second year without wideout Tyler Boyd, who had served as a kind of paternal figure for the receivers room before signing with the Titans as a free agent in 2024. Now Chase and Higgins are the two most veteran receivers on a team facing high expectations. During Chase’s rookie season, the Bengals reached the Super Bowl. The following year Cincinnati won 12 games, instilling the kind of championship dreams that come with having a QB like Burrow and talent like Chase and Higgins around him. It’s the situation NFL teams aspire to, but over time it can test your resilience—especially when you’re in the same conference as the Chiefs, who seem to use some kind of dark arts magic to clear their path to the AFC title every year.
Remaining grounded requires a routine and the right mindset. Chase and Higgins can define selflessness on each play, but their next step as leaders was always going to be instilling that standard organically amongst their teammates.
In other words, the next step was always Taco Tuesday.
Says Higgins, “That’s real big with me and Ja’Marr.”
The tradition started with just the two of them. Now coaches come. So do new additions to the team. Higgins describes the guest list as “different people,” and the top order of business is “talking about life, activities outside of football and things like that.”
“We’re the leaders in the room now,” Higgins says, before launching into a list of his favorites at Tequila Modern Mexican over on Madison Road, about 10 minutes from the stadium. His power move is to not necessarily get tacos, but sometimes to go with lamb chops and “tequila dip.” (That’s shrimp, chicken and steak pooled in a vat of queso cheese, topped with pico de gallo.)
Higgins says the participants will get asked for pictures from time to time at these meals, but that “a lot of people understand that we’re here bonding.”
At their post-contract signing press conference back in March—which they did together, of course—Bengals head coach Zac Taylor introduced the receivers. He noted that both players are built differently from most people. And while this is an all-time coaching platitude (wouldn’t nearly every athlete good enough to play in the NFL technically be built differently from a genealogical perspective?), perhaps their relationship is what the coach hopes will make the Bengals different as a whole. Though Cincinnati has, for years, spent money commensurately with some of the top teams in the NFL—added an indoor practice facility, hired more scouts and, just over the last three years, signed Burrow, Chase and Higgins to historic extensions—the franchise will always to some degree battle a warped perception of its frugality. Their contract standoff this offseason with All-Pro sack artist Trey Hendrickson, for example, has reinforced the old notions.
But it’s hard to believe this franchise is frugal to a fault when Higgins and Chase on rare occasion decide to pull their high-priced rides out of their respective garages. Or when you catch them together on one of their frequent boutique shopping trips in downtown Miami. Not that Chase and Higgins have gone completely upscale: Another of their favorite local spots near the Bengals’ stadium in nearby Covington is a Waffle House next to a place called Smilin Smoker N’ Liquor.
It might be more popular in the NFL to hand the ball off now. To grind down opponents. To eliminate interceptions and sack-fumbles. But for the Bengals, the chance to go with this kind of talent, this level of swag, this moment of cool, was too much to pass up.
Higgins talks about how eager he is to start the next phase of his life. To pass along everything he’s learning and to lead. He’ll do anything, he says, save for actually letting someone else from the team ride in the McLaren. (“You have to earn your way to the top,” he says.)
The funny thing about buying your dream car, though, is that the serotonin is going to level off and the restlessness is going to rise again—in the great ones, at least. Higgins and Chase didn’t enjoy the moment of purchase for long.
“Getting the McLaren was pretty dope,” Higgins says, rising off the couch. “Once you get it, you’re like, Oh my God, I got it. But then it’s like—I got more work to do. I got all this money, now I gotta go make some more.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Why the Bengals Are Betting on Receivers As the NFL Goes Back to the Run Game.