Analyze Tee Higgins's matchup for week 11
Higgins is fully healthy after clearing concussion protocol and carries elite WR1 upside into a home date with a Steelers secondary he’s averaged 5-87-0.5 against for his career. Fire him up as a high-floor WR2.
Pittsburgh’s defense ranks 19th in fantasy points allowed to WRs (33.0 FPTS) and has surrendered 152.1 receiving yards per game to the position. The Steelers still play man coverage at a top-five rate, a look Higgins has exploited repeatedly: he averages 14.7 YPR versus Pittsburgh and has cleared 100 yards in three of their last eight meetings. At 6'4" he creates instant matchup problems for a corner group that has struggled against bigger bodies in 2025.
Back-to-back productive outings — 7-121-2 before exiting Week 9 with a concussion — have Higgins ascending just as Joe Flacco’s timing with him has improved.
Higgins’ career splits against the Steelers are legitimately elite: eight games, 5.1 receptions on 7.6 targets, 87.1 yards and 0.5 TDs a night, good for roughly 15.5 half-PPR points. That production isn’t noise; it’s skill translating to scheme. Pittsburgh refuses to abandon its man-heavy DNA, and Higgins wins at every level versus man — back-shoulders on the sideline, jump balls in the end zone and slants where his frame provides a natural shield. Add in a red-zone role that has produced five scores in eight Steelers games and you get one of the league’s most bankable divisional matchup plays.
Week 11 sets up similarly. The Steelers are allowing the 11th-most yards per target (8.4) to outside receivers and have just one corner with a sub-50% catch rate allowed. Higgins will see a heavy dose of man from a secondary that’s already given up 13 WR touchdowns. With Ja’Marr Chase likely to draw the top coverage, Higgins should run a majority of his routes against the weaker boundary corner and safeties who have missed tackles at a 14% clip. Offensive-line concerns are real, but Flacco gets the ball out in 2.49 seconds and Higgins’ average target depth (11.8 yd) is perfect for quick-strike chunk plays.
Bottom line: health is no longer in question, the matchup screams plus, and the game-script (divisional, playoff-adjacent) points to a full passing-game volume. A 6-110-1 line is the median projection, with ceiling for another 30-point eruption if Pittsburgh is forced to chase and abandon its two-high shell. Plug Higgins in as a confident WR2 who carries week-winning upside.