“We managed Tee, so this was all planned,” Taylor said Friday after practice. “Anything you saw in practice with him, doing rehab, doing individual stuff was all stuff we had coordinated all week to make sure he was in a great spot and right now he’s in a great spot.”
Defensive end Trey Hendrickson also is expected to play, despite a neck issue and personal matter that kept him from traveling to Los Angeles with the team Friday afternoon. He is expected to fly out Saturday separately and be available Sunday.
Higgins has been working through a quadriceps injury suffered in practice Oct. 25 and causing him to miss the last three games.
Brown did not practice Wednesday but was upgraded to limited participation Thursday, and Taylor said the team is just monitoring how he’s feeling over the next 24 hours.
Going into the game at Baltimore last week, it appeared Brown was further ahead in his recovery than Higgins, who had not even begun limited participation until this week. Brown had practiced in limited fashion twice last week.
Higgins’ return gives Joe Burrow a proven target beyond Ja’Marr Chase and comes as the Bengals are trying to make a push for the playoffs over the final seven games. He also was sidelined the first two games of the season because of a hamstring injury, meaning he has played just five games, but Cincinnati has collected three of its four wins in those games.
“We still think he can handle a good amount, and he’s had a great week of practice with the stuff he can do,” Taylor said. “He feels really good, so we’re going to put him out there. Fortunately, we have a lot of weapons, so we can disperse it, but we expect him to be like Tee.”
Taylor confirmed that Logan Wilson (quad) and B.J. Hill (knee), who both were limited Thursday, will be good to go. Hill has been managing pain in his knee since tweaking it against the Ravens, and last week was dealing with soreness in his ribs. Despite the various ailments, he hasn’t missed a game since his Week 2 hamstring injury sidelined him two games.
“BJ gets all the credit in the world from me for giving us what he’s given us,” Taylor said. “Those are the types of guys you don’t take for granted.”
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