The Cincinnati Bengals have become one of the best teams in the NFL and it's because, well, they have some of the best players in the league on their roster.

It starts, of course, with quarterback Joe Burrow, a top-five player at his position. Wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase can make the claim he's top-five at his as well, but he's elite regardless. 

Speaking of receivers, the Bengals are loaded in that area.

Chase gets the most headlines, but Tee Higgins, who the Bengals took in the second round in 2020 after drafting Burrow, is as good of a No.2 option as there is in football, and Cynthia Frelund of NFL Network deemed him one of the league's most underappreciated players. 

Going with Higgins feels a little like cheating, since he qualifies as "underappreciated" in part because he's still on his affordable rookie contract — at least, for now. There's no denying his impact in Cincinnati. Per computer vision, he ranked among the top 18 wideouts in win-share ranking in 2021; last season, that ranking jumped to 14th.

Higgins played six games without Burrow as a rookie after he tore his ACL. However, Higgins still had a stellar year with 908 yards and six touchdowns. 

Burrow has been completely healthy the last two seasons, and despite sharing targets with Chase and Tyler Boyd, Higgins has continued to produce. He has tallied 74 receptions in each of the last two seasons with just over 1,000 yards in both and 23 total touchdowns. 

NGS shows Higgins earned 207 receiving yards over expected on passes of 10-plus air yards, ranking fourth best in the NFL. He led the league in catch rate over expected when targeted in the middle third of the field (13.1%), and he finished fifth in the NFL in catch rate when targeted on in-breaking routes (81.1%).

Higgins has shown something very important early in his career and that's his ability to perform at a high level at the most critical times. In the Bengals' postseason run in 2021, Higgins had back-to-back 100-yard performances in the AFC Championship Game and the Super Bowl (scored two touchdowns) and put up 96 yards in the divisional round.

Higgins will be an unrestricted free agent in 2024. Undoubtedly the Bengals will work diligently to retain him because guys that are 6'4" with speed, a huge catch radius, and versatility (362 snaps in the slot during his career) don't just fall out of the sky.