The Bengals cut 11 players Friday to get down to 75, and they still need to cut 22 more by 4 p.m. Tuesday to get down to the 53-man roster mandated for the NFL regular season.
Along with negotiating the numbers game at each position against the backdrop of the entire roster, the Bengals are grappling with an inordinate number of injuries.
The defensive line has been hit particularly hard, with backup end-tackle Cam Sample (Achilles) out for the year, backup rookie defensive tackle McKinnley Jackson (knee) out since the second week of training camp and backup edge Myles Murphy (knee) now on a week-to-week basis after limping off the field during last Tuesday's joint practice against the Colts.
Plus, with backup running back Chris Evans (knee) and backup tackle D’Ante Smith (knee) also out for the year, the Bengals will probably take a harder, longer look at the waiver wire this year than they did last year.
Because of that, the roster may look a tad unconventional after the initial cuts (five tight ends? seven wide receivers?) until the potential waiver wire claims. The injuries also mean they'll have to dig for 16 practice squad players, a process they began to signal when they cut 11 early.
A look at the roster heading into cuts. (Number of NFL seasons in parenthesis.)
QUARTERBACKS (3)
Joe Burrow (5), Logan Woodside (5), Jake Browning (2)
Favorite Burrow moment from training camp?
Not the cannon shot to wide receiver Shed Jackson, the touchdown answer to the boys-will-be-boys scrum or even the NFL Films back-shoulder dime to tight end Mike Gesicki.
Head back to the Bears' indoor facility after the Aug. 15 soak of a joint practice in which his offense swam more than anything else in a driving rain. But Burrow patiently took all questions and firmly declared he was ready for Opening Day after never missing a training camp rep.
How sweet is that?
Despite the rough passing day, he also took all questions from a Chicago media hoping Bears overall No. 1 pick Caleb Willams is half as good as Burrow, the 2020 overall No. 1. It shows how comfortable he has become in his burgeoning role as one of the NFL's flagship players and one of the best quarterbacks in the league.
WIDE RECEIVERS (9)
Tee Higgins (5), Trenton Irwin (5), Ja'Marr Chase (4), Andrei Iosivas (2), Charlie Jones (2), Kendric Pryor (2), Shed Jackson (1), Cole Burgess (R), Jermaine Burton (R).
It looks like the Bengals are on their way to keeping their conventional six, and Jones looks ready to go after a 48-yard kick return the first time he touched the ball in the preseason in the Thursday night finale against the Colts.
So, too, is Burton who had the most exciting preseason in the room with two long touchdowns and 20-yard average on his eight catches. As they ease him in, he doesn't have any reps with Burrow in a game. The big question is if he'll be active for the opener because injuries at other spots may factor in there.
With the release of classy Kwamie Lassiter II, a reliable guy they've had on the practice squad the past two seasons, are they looking for more speed on the squad?
TIGHT ENDS (6)
Mike Gesicki (7), Drew Sample (6), Tanner Hudson (5), Erick All Jr. (R), Cam Gandy (R), Tanner McLachlan (R)
Once All got healthy, he's been the talk of camp. The buzz is they may have their most complete tight end since, well, we give you Jermaine Gresham (look it up) and if you don't like that, then go back to the turn-of-the-century and Tony McGee. Against the Colts, he viciously turned up a screen pass for ten yards with speed and later opened up a 14-yard Trayveon Williams run going in motion to detonate a block.
How they keep more than four is a math quagmire, but it's quite a four. Take the fourth-rounder All, combined with the former second-rounder Gesicki who has three 50-catch seasons, another second-rounder in the versatile H-Back Sample and a Burrow favorite in Hudson, and it's their deepest tight end room in quite some time.
Take a bow, James Casey, tight ends coach, Esq.
RUNNING BACKS (4)
Trayveon Williams (6), Zack Moss (5), Chase Brown (2), Elijah Collins (R)
With Evans out, here's a spot where they'll scour the waiver wire. The thinking still has to be they'll keep three. Williams had another yeoman preseason with 4.8 yards per his 20 carries.
OFFENSIVE LINE (12)
RT Trent Brown (10), C Ted Karras (9), LT Orlando Brown Jr. (7), RG Alex Cappa (7), G-T Cody Ford (6), C-G Trey Hill (4), LG Cordell Volson (3), T Devin Cochran (2), C Nate Gilliam (1), G Jaxson Kirkland (1), C Matt Lee (R), RT Amarius Mims (R).
The Bengals released Jackson Carman Friday, a second-round pick who came off the bench to give them a lift in the 2022 postseason at left tackle. Ever since that 2021 offseason in which they drafted Carman and signed vet Riley Reiff, they haven't stopped adding tackles. In the last two offseasons, the Bengals have added free-agent left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. and right tackle Trent Brown and drafted the first-round right tackle Amarius Mims.
Mims (shoulder) is a question mark for the opener, and they're managing the next man up, Brown (back). Two up-and-coming players appeared to have secured backup spots in what looks to be a nine-man room. They got Kirkland and Lee out of Thursday's game after each took 29 snaps.
Despite starting at right tackle for the first time in his life against the Colts, Kirkland allowed no pressures in 18 pass blocks, via Pro Football Focus. For the second straight game, Lee didn't allow a pressure. And most of their snaps came against the Indy Ones.
They apparently feel like they're constructed with a little more flexibility than in the past since backups Ford and Kirkland have played both tackle and guard.
DEFENSIVE LINE (15)
T Sheldon Rankins (9), E Trey Hendrickson (8), T B.J. Hill (7), E Sam Hubbard (7), E Joseph Ossai (4), T Jay Tufele (4), T Zach Carter (3), T Carlos Davis (3), T Travis Bell (2), E Myles Murphy (2), T Domenique Davis (1), E Justin Blazek (R), T McKinnley Jackson (R), T Kris Jenkins Jr. (R), E Cedric Johnson (R).
The injuries have really crunched the Bengals here. First things first. They have to decide if Jackson (knee) and Murphy (knee) can be back before four weeks. If they can, then they can carry them on the roster for the first couple of games and make them inactive on Game Day.
Or, they may have to use two of their eight IR-Returns right away to put them on injured reserve for four weeks. The ideal number here is 10 — five tackles and five edge rushers — and they would have to decide how to fill the spots.
The injuries to Sample and Murphy and the retirement of Jeff Gunter leave them with four edge rushers. Blazek could be a fifth after he had a big night Thursday with a sack-strip and a total of five pressures. If not, they could go to the wire.
It certainly means that Johnson makes it. A sixth-rounder from Ole Miss, Johnson finished off a terrific camp with another active night Thursday of three pressures on 20 rushes and a sack that was negated by the Bengals' only penalty.
Jenkins has asserted himself behind Hill and Rankins at tackle. Carter clearly has a spot after not playing Thursday. With Jackson out, you wonder if Tufele has played his way back into a spot after being hurt early in camp. He did have a tackle for a loss Thursday and has a history of some good ball during his 17 games in the past two years with the Bengals.
Or do they waiver?
LINEBACKERS (7)
Germaine Pratt (6), Joe Bachie (5), Akeem Davis-Gaither (5), Logan Wilson (5), Devin Harper (3), Shaka Heyward (1), Maema Njongmeta (R).
The Bengals cut Indiana undrafted rookie Aaron Casey, apparently leaving the undrafted Njongmeta and practice squadders Heyward and Harper for the fifth and final spot.
PFF gave Heyward and Harper much better grades than Njongmeta for Thursday night, but it's the coaches' grades that count, and Njongmeta has built up a lot of capital with them. PFF got him for two missed tackles, not four or five like Maema said, but he was there for nine more tackles. He looked to be the leader in the clubhouse. Did he do enough? And, will injuries have them think about keeping six?
SECONDARY (15)
S Vonn Bell (9), CB Mike Hilton (8), CB Jalen Davis (5), S Geno Stone (5), S Tycen Anderson (3), CB Dax Hill (3), CB Cam Taylor-Britt (3), S Jordan Battle (2), CB Nate Brooks (2), CB DJ Ivey (2), CB DJ Turner II (2), S Daijahn Anthony (R), S PJ Jules (R), CB Josh Newton (R), CB Lance Robinson (R).
They're definitely thinking about keeping 11 here even though they're dealing here with another injury in Robinson.
They're grooming young guns like Anderson and Anthony as gunners and Battle as a special teams captain as they covet five safeties and six cornerbacks. Five of the cornerbacks can play the slot in Hilton, Davis, Hill, Newton and Turner. Theoretically, 10 go active on Game Day, including all the safeties.
Battle, he of the pick-six, was graded the Bengals' best PFF defensive player Thursday night. Newton was the second overall and second in coverage, allowing just four catches for 22 yards working against Indy's starters much of the night as part of his 33 coverage snaps. After an up-and-down day in Chicago five days before, he displayed a vet cornerback's short memory.
As the Bengals sort through the bountiful new depth at cornerback, they released the highly-respected Allan George Friday. George, signed in 2022 as an undrafted free agent from Vanderbilt, has been on the practice squad the last two years and didn't play in a game last season. But he played in seven as a rookie, including three in the playoffs.
SPECIALISTS (4)
K Evan McPherson (4), LS Cal Adomitis (3), P Brad Robbins (2), P Ryan Rehkow (R)
You've got to love how head coach Zac Taylor pays attention and knows just the right gesture. In kicker Evan McPherson’s first game back in Paycor Stadium since signing his extension, he made him the game captain for the preseason finale.
As Robbins deals with a hip flexor, Rehkow is poised for Opening Day. He's one of these rookies you love one minute and then has you shaking your head the next. But no question the guy can boom it like no Bengals punter in this century. Once he gets settled and finds his groove, they may really have something. He put his first punt Thursday in the end zone, but he also drilled it 65 yards in the air and put three inside the 20.
