Aside from keeping their playoff hopes alive, the most pleasing aspect of the Cincinnati Bengals’ five-game winning streak to close out the regular season was Joe Burrow emphasizing how important Tee Higgins is to this team.

After the Bengals’ 19-17 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Saturday night, Burrow sent another message to the Bengals’ front office as they prepare to make an important decision when it comes to their star wide receiver .

“You just can’t let him out of the building,” Burrow said of Higgins’ impending free agency.

Additionally, we discovered that Higgins is dealing with a high ankle sprain, a serious injury that often sidelines players for several weeks.

Burrow and Higgins were selected in the first and second rounds of the 2020 NFL Draft. They have been here since the beginning. They saw the Bengals hit rock bottom when Burrow suffered a torn ACL in Week 11 of the 2020 season. Both players were rookies during the 2020 season and were heavily impacted by COVID-19.

Since then, Burrow and Higgins have become cornerstones of the Bengals franchise. It was Higgins who caught Burrow’s 75-yard touchdown on the first play of the second half of Super Bowl LVI. Higgins also led the Bengals in receiving yards in the AFC Championship during that memorable 2021 season.

It was also Higgins who emerged as the WR1 when Ja’Marr Chase missed four games with a hip injury midway through the 2022 season.

Burrow gets it. He knows Tee Higgins is a need. That sentiment was expressed by Burrow numerous times during the Bengals’ five-game winning streak.

The question is: Did the Bengals front office get the message?