2023 marked the most frustrating year for Higgins in his four-year career, with Higgins himself starting just 12 games and missing parts of others while also dealing with backup QB play from Jake Browning in his last five games of the season. While his 36.9% air yards share looks good on the surface (for reference, 31% air yards share is considered WR1-worthy - credit to FantasyLife's Dwain McFarland), things sour quickly when we consider that both Joe Burrow and Jake Browning ranked bottom-4 among all QBs in aDOT in 2023, posting paltry 6.7 and 6.3 marks, respectively. That's down there with Daniel Jones and Tommy DeVito, who's top weapons featured a battered Darren Waller and rookie Jalin Hyatt. Even in games where Higgins was healthy, his production wasn't close to what we've become accustomed to getting from him in years past - he reeled in five or more catches in just four of his 12 starts while posting career lows in catch rate (56.8%) and yards per route run (1.85). His 16.9% target share (44th) and 0.21 targets per route run (48th) are likely more so products of a lost season for both Higgins and the Bengals as a team, but the reality is that the 2020 second-round pick has yet to finish any higher than the WR14 in PPR points per game in his career. Whether that ceiling is a product of running opposite of Ja'Marr Chase for three of his four seasons in the NFL or an indictment on Higgins' ability to be a true No. 1 receiver can be debated, but with Higgins officially signing his franchise tag in mid-June, he'll have to overcome the same obstacles in 2024 as he continues to search for his first WR1 finish of his career.