Bengals rookie wide receiver Colbie Young was right.
Tee Higgins, the Pro Bowler stalking those 50 career touchdown catches that are the upper crust of the Bengals' royal line of wide receivers, doesn't remember him or the photo.
But that was years ago. Before COVID even. When Young was in 10th or 11th grade at Clemson's football camp. Higgins, then one of the stars of the Tigers' back-to-back national title game runs, was dominating the country with that slashing and stout 6-4ish basketball style Young has nurtured. So a snapshot with the future pro was fire for him and fleeting for Higgins.
Not now at the Bengals' voluntary spring practices, where Higgins has embraced his role as mentor to Young as if he were pulling down one of his patented 50-50 balls he has turned into 90-10. Where, just on Wednesday, quarterback Joe Burrow joined in after clicking on a deep fade with Young and told the kid, "That's where we're going to make our money for sure."
"I see a lot of me in him. From my rookie year for sure," Higgins says. "He's quiet. That's how I was. Quiet guy, but he speaks when he needs to. He's got raw talent … He's got all the tools … Good hands. He's a really good route runner. Just a few things that I see. What he can work on. I saw that in myself when I was his age."
Hey, it's not like Higgins is headed to the cornfield. The man is a mere 27, is coming off two hellacious seasons of double-digit touchdown catches, and is only a year into one of the richest deals in the game.
But for a man who was able to play with his idol for a year, Bengals Ring of Honor nominee A.J. Green, it means something. He remembers how open and accessible "Dream," was and six short years later he's doing the same.
(By the way, it looks like, someday, Higgins is also going to follow Green to that list, since he needs just five more touchdowns to join Green, Chad Johnson, Carl Pickens, Isaac Curtis, and his sidekick Ja'Marr Chase as members of the 50-TD catch club.)
"I've been playing at a high level for a long time," Higgins says. "It's been a blessing. Him being able to watch me growing up and then for me being on this team, and being able to teach him a few things like it was with A.J."
Now, every day, here's Young, 6-4, 215 pounds, drafted in the fourth round out of Georgia 15 years after the Bengals went there to take the 6-4, 210-pound Green with the fourth pick, working with and listening to the 6-4, 220-pound Higgins.
Crazy, because all last season in Athens Young watched tape of Higgins and Drake London. And he's been watching Higgins and Chase a lot longer than that.
"When you have two of the best receivers, and you play receiver, you've got to tune in or you won't learn from the game," says Young, who turns 24 just before training camp and has lived a lifetime through COVID, junior college, and Miami before Georgia. "People pay for this and, honestly, I'm getting it for free."
It is Higgins who is "the similar receiver in build," and has counseled him how to put fear into cornerbacks.
"The body demeanor," is what Young says Higgins is talking about. "Come out like you're running a go ball every time. They're already afraid of our size and speed, so make it look like you're going vertical every time.
"He's a humble guy who just goes about his day. But he takes so much time with his body and craft. It's very motivational and inspiring."
The man he has been watching on TV and tape for years now, acts "like he's one of us," Young says. This is what he wants to take from Higgins in addition to his tips:
"His whole game … He's got one of one talent. I'm just trying to get to that level. The contested catch. Creating space at the top of the routes. And scoring touchdowns."
Higgins has been there. He talked to Green, in his 10th season then, mainly about taking care of his body and how to play that long. Now he's talking to Young about how to use that body.
"He's a big receiver like me. Just little tips on breaking down and driving your hips and stuff like that can go a long way," says Higgins, who knows so much of it is natural talent. "Getting your hips lower. Not taking too many steps and in out of your cuts.
"I use my basketball background. I don't know if he played basketball when he was younger."
Oh, Young played plenty of basketball. Starting with AAU ball in Binghamton, N.Y., before going to a high school program known around the state as a player. He wasn't exactly Mr. Upstate or anything like Higgins in Tennessee tearing up Oak Ridge as finalist for the state's Mr. Basketball honor.
But … Could have ... Young decided his sophomore year that football was his ticket and gave up basketball until his close friend and basketball captain talked him into hanging out with the guys senior year.
Next thing they knew, Young was lighting up Southern Tier gyms with dunks while averaging 21 points per game. Then he gave Binghamton the Section 4 Class AA title in a 31-point effort he capped with eight seconds left in overtime on a driving tie-breaking layup.
That was Young's last basketball play ever. COVID wiped out the state tournament. It also sentenced Young to JuCo football without a big-time offer.
But that long-ago photo of two basketball ballers muscling their game to the NFL still came true.
"He has a lot of achievements under his belt. He could be a hard person to talk to," says Cobie Young, who Tee Higgins knows quite well these days. "He's been very open. Very welcoming."
