Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins will return to play Monday night against the Jacksonville Jaguars after missing the past three games with a hamstring injury, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.

Higgins suffered the injury during practice on the heels of his best performance of the season in Week 9 against the Buffalo Bills when he made eight catches for 110 yards.

The Bengals have fallen into disarray during Higgins absence, as they lost superstar quarterback Joe Burrow to a season-ending wrist injury in Week 11 against the Baltimore Ravens.

Even when Burrow was in the lineup, Higgins was having a down year, especially when compared to what he did over the first three years of his NFL career.

The 2020 second-round draft pick out of Clemson was productive right out of the gates with 67 receptions for 908 yards and six touchdowns as a rookie, followed by 74 grabs for 1,091 yards and six touchdowns in 2021, and 74 catches for 1,029 yards and seven scores last season.

In seven games this season, Higgins has just 27 receptions for 328 yards and two touchdowns, and barring massive numbers down the stretch, 2023 will prove to be his worst NFL season thus far by a significant margin.

The 24-year-old wideout's only 100-yard game this season came against Buffalo, and he has not scored a touchdown in any game aside from a two-TD performance against the Ravens in September.

With Burrow on the shelf, Jake Browning will be Higgins' quarterback on Monday, and perhaps for the rest of the season.

Prior to this season, the 27-year-old Browning had never thrown an NFL regular-season pass, and he made his first career start last weekend in a 16-10 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Browning wasn't bad in the game, going 19-of-26 for 227 yards with one touchdown and one interception, but the offense clearly lacked the explosiveness it has when Burrow is under center.

While he is more of a game manager than a game winner like Burrow, Browning could benefit significantly from the return of Higgins since he will have one of the best wide receiver tandems in the NFL at his disposal in Higgins and Ja'Marr Chase.

At 5-6, the Bengals are in a position where they can ill afford to lose more than one game for the rest of the season, and while that seems unlikely, a full complement of offensive weapons at least gives Browning and the Bengals a fighting chance.