Wide receiver Higgins looks to build on his strong finish
Rashard Higgins has BEREA — taken the momentum from his best game as a pro and carried into his third and most important offseason. That game a two-touchdown
— performance in Pittsburgh capped a tumultuous
— season for the fifthround pick out of Colorado State, one that started with him getting cut.
It was also something he might have seen coming.
“I dreamed about it that night,” Higgins said Monday.
It was a strong impression to make with new GM John Dorsey looking on from the press box that afternoon. Now Higgins is trying to put enough on film this summer to make it difficult for Dorsey and Co. to send him away in early September.
“(He’s) made plays,” coach Hue Jackson said. “That is what receivers have to do. They have to make the plays when the ball is thrown. Whether it is under-thrown, over-thrown or whatever that is, you have to make the play. That is what Rashard is starting to do.”
Higgins latched on with the Browns’ practice squad after he was cut last season, but he didn’t stay there long. He got called up in Week 2 against Baltimore and received 11 targets, catching seven passes for 95 yards. He said after the game that he told himself he didn’t want to get cut anymore.
He caught just 17 passes for 149 yards in between that game and the finale in Pittsburgh, but the first two touchdowns of his career against the Steelers were enough to give him this shot. His mindset hasn’t changed.
“Going in, I never want to be in that predicament again,” he said, “so I am doing whatever I can to not put myself in that for the coaches to say we need to cut him. That is how I am approaching things.”
“I think that he looks around and says, ‘Hey look, I want to be one of the guys that is left standing in the room,’” Jackson said. “He is working his tail off.”
Higgins admitted Monday he was taken aback by the difference between players in the NFL and what he faced in college when he first arrived here. He set career records at Colorado State for receptions (239), receiving yards (3.649) and touchdowns (31).
So far this camp, he already appears to have developed a chemistry with quarterback Baker Mayfield. Both have been getting time with the second team and Mayfield to Higgins has become a common sight.
“I meet with Baker all the time,” Higgins said. “I ask him questions, little questions, we sit together at lunchtime, we eat together, I’m always in his ear, not only him, but Tyrod (Taylor), I’m asking Tyrod the same things but more so with Baker. I don’t know why, I’m just with Baker a lot.”
Mayfield acknowledged the chemistry, too, on Monday.
“He’s a guy that you see when he has the ball in his hands, it looks really natu- ral,” he said. “He’s just a ball player. He’s a fun guy to be around, positive, energetic. I seem to always kind of gravitate toward guys like that.”
Higgins was part of the group that went out to Los Angeles on Taylor’s dime and worked out at UCLA and USC. It was something he said he’s never seen a quarterback do before.
With the nickname “Hollywood” and never one for lacking confidence — he said his rookie training camp that he wanted seven touchdowns that season — Higgins hopes to parlay a strong finale and a strong offseason into a roster spot.
“I always got confidence, man,” Higgins said. “Got con- fidence in myself and every- thing that I’m doing.”