Bengals WR Tee Higgins on RETURN, His Health and Monday Night Football
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00:00I feel great, obviously, unfortunately with the injury, sat out the first two weeks, but
00:05finally ready to get my feet wet this season and ready to go.
00:09Can you tell us what happened in practice that led to you tweaking it?
00:13Oh yeah, just over-strided one time, you know, hamstring, so you got to really stretch it.
00:18Just happened to be tight one day, that day, and tweaked it, didn't think it was anything,
00:24but ended up being, you know, something more than what I thought it was and had to sit out those two weeks.
00:29How did you deal with your emotions right after you injured it?
00:33Obviously, you know, you talked about wanting to play all the games that you can, and obviously
00:39that was out of your control, so what was it like for you to have to kind of work through the injury?
00:44I mean, yeah, it was tough, obviously, you know, preparing myself all season not to miss a game,
00:49but unfortunately it happened. Luckily it was at the beginning of the season, so still got a whole season left.
00:56Are you excited about the potential of you and Juarez?
01:00Oh yeah, definitely excited. You know, it hasn't happened yet this year, so definitely looking forward to it.
01:05How much more explosive can this offense be and efficient?
01:11It can be very explosive. I've seen it in the past years, so hopefully we can get something this week.
01:18What's your goal over the past couple of days getting back on the practice field, and do you feel like
01:23now that you're through these past couple of days that you accomplished that?
01:26Get through the fucking week, man. I just want to get through the week, man, make it to Monday, and go from there.
01:33So far?
01:35Can you go 100% or is it something you have to feel out?
01:38Yeah, I can go 100% for sure.
01:41So you're confident then that assuming tomorrow goes well that you'll be able to suit up?
01:46Yeah.
01:48Do you plan to play as of right now on Monday?
01:50That's my plan.
01:53Is this something where you guys just wanted to play it safe and make sure you're fully healed before bringing you back and not rush it?
01:58Yeah, 1,000%. You never want to rush a hamstring. Those are really serious injuries.
02:04And you know what they say, once you feel good, you want to take another week.
02:08So obviously I've seen me working out pregame versus Chiefs. Felt pretty good, but just to be cautious, I wanted to give it another week and be ready for this week.
02:18To keep yourself back, was it difficult, even though you might have felt good, to hold it back another week?
02:25It definitely was hard, especially as a competitor versus a great team like them.
02:31It was definitely hard, but I had full faith in my guys that it was going to get the job done.
02:37Obviously we fell a little bit short, but it was definitely hard, yeah.
02:41When you tweaked it in the moment, did you realize it was as bad as it was or was this something that got...
02:47It was just something that I felt, and I let the trainers know.
02:52And obviously they wanted to get a look at it, and it was worse than what I thought it was.
02:59Obviously this is an important year for you, obviously, with the contract situation.
03:05How important is it for you to balance what's best for you financially with what's best for you as a player?
03:12I just got to do my thing on the field, and everything will take care of itself.
03:16Clearly none of us are professional athletes of your level, so with the hamstring tweak that you had,
03:23what's the key to getting it back to what it is?
03:26What do you have to go through from a rehab standpoint? How do you heal it?
03:30Everything. Treatment, treatment, treatment. A lot of strength work.
03:37Recovery, things like that. It's just anything to get it right and get it better.
03:45How do you feel?
03:48That's why I was so bummed out that it happened, because it was something that I focused on this offseason for it not to happen.
03:55And it did, but I'm back now, so it's cool.
03:59How do you feel like practice has gone for you?
04:02Practice went really well. Got in a lot of plays, so it felt good out there and ready to go.
04:08What position do you feel like you're at right now?
04:10I feel like I'm at 100%.
04:12Obviously you had a good camp. Do you feel like you're back to that? Can you be back to that that quickly physically?
04:19Yeah, I'm back. I feel 100%, like I said. Still looking forward to building off the good camp.
04:29How much do you think this team needs the game on Monday night?
04:34I mean, they're 0-2. Nobody wants to start 0-3, so we need it. A lot. That's how I feel.
04:43What's your view of the offense right now? You haven't had many shots, but you're also using a lot more weapons.
04:50We made a lot of strides from game one to game two, so I'm looking forward to keep pushing and making those strides and getting better each and every day.