Titans missed out on the two most popular players on the waiver wire
According to ESPN's Field Yates, the Tennessee Titans were among five teams who attempted to claim wide receiver-turned-NFL tight end Elijah Higgins from the waivers on Wednesday. Tennessee did not get him. Instead, he landed on the Arizona Cardinals. Per Yates, the other teams who swung and missed at the "most popular player" on the […]
According to ESPN's Field Yates, the Tennessee Titans were among five teams who attempted to claim wide receiver-turned-NFL tight end Elijah Higgins from the waivers on Wednesday.
Tennessee did not get him. Instead, he landed on the Arizona Cardinals.
Per Yates, the other teams who swung and missed at the "most popular player" on the waivers were the Indianapolis Colts, Washington Commanders and Green Bay Packers.
What Makes Higgins So Special
Higgins was initially drafted by the Miami Dolphins in the sixth round of April’s draft.
The 6-foot-3,235-pound Stanford product played wide receiver for four seasons with the Cardinals, but he was taken by the Dolphins with the hopes of turning him into a tight end.
That could possibly explain why the Dolphins opted to cut him: they didn't like what they saw from him as a tight end and had no need for him in a crowded wide receiver room.
Nonetheless, the Cardinals signed him as a tight end as well but will likely use him wherever they need him.
Through his four seasons with the Cardinals, Higgins appeared in 40 games with 23 starts and had 119 receptions for 1,380 yards and six touchdowns.
He led the team in his final year with a career-high 704 receiving yards on 59 catches, which earned him an All-Pac-12 honorable mention for the 2022 season.
He brings speed to the game with a 4.54-second 40 time. The Athletic's Dane Brugler had this to say about Higgins in his annual draft guide, The Beast:
… He was the most targeted player by Tanner McKee over the past two seasons and led the team in receiving as a junior and senior. Higgins has the start-stop quickness to open quickly underneath while also flashing the long speed to be a catch-and-go threat or work the deep area of the field. However, he needs to fine-tune his route running and play mistake-free football to see consistent playing time in the NFL…
He is an intriguing height/weight/speed athlete with the talent to be a matchup problem from different areas of the field. He can be a hybrid “move” tight end or “big” slot in the NFL, depending on scheme. – Dane Brugler, The Athletic
With very few weapons on their roster heading into Week 1, the Cardinals certainly needed Higgins a lot more than the Titans did. But if he's ever up for grabs again, he's worth another shot at claiming.
Titans Struck Out Again
Higgins wasn't the only player that the Titans missed out on.
They also put a claim in for offensive guard Nick Broeker, who was a seventh-round pick out of Ole Miss by the Buffalo Bills in April but failed to make the final roster.
The Texans were the lucky winners for that one as they had the highest waiver priority.
Like Higgins, Broeker wasn't drafted for the position that he primarily played in college. Instead of entering the NFL as a tackle, he went in as a guard.
He appeared in 48 career games for the Rebels where started three out of four of those seasons, not missing a single game. He played 23 games at left tackle and 13 at left guard. In his final year, he did not allow a single sack. Broeker was a two-time All-SEC selection and 2022 second-team All-American.
The Titans need plenty of help on their offensive line, so it's a shame they that couldn't snag Broeker.
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Featured image via Denny Simmons/ The Tennessean/ USA Today
