The Bengals exit cutdown day with a feeling of stability.
Ja’Marr Chase will play Week 1, according to coach Zac Taylor.
The club placed a substantial bet on a 2024 draft it believes landed a substantial victory for the roster depth.
Joe Burrow is coming off one of his best practices of the year. Tee Higgins looks in midseason form.
The Bengals are championship contenders with eyes on achieving a fast start for the second time in the Burrow era — the first culminated in a Super Bowl appearance.
We’ve announced our initial 53-man roster for the 2024 season.
Full roster → https://t.co/gofL7M20VF pic.twitter.com/roUJpBi6xI
— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) August 27, 2024
Those are the general points, but trimming the roster to 53, adding two players to IR-return and another PUP offered some answers and a few more questions.
Let’s dive in.
1. The final exhale with Ja’Marr Chase
The moment the star receiver returned to practice as a full participant on Sunday, a full sense of relief exhaled around Paycor Stadium. Chase’s hold-in, while amicable, represented an ominous cloud over an otherwise encouraging training camp.
For the most part, there was never any sense of animosity or demands being made, as we saw in other receiver contract disputes in Dallas and San Francisco. Still, the unknown existed. Would Chase be willing to sit out games?
With his return to practice, we got the answer in action. On Tuesday, we got the answer in one word when Taylor was asked if he was confident Chase would play Week 1: “Yes.”
With that, Chase’s August of angst becomes a footnote in the 2024 season. He’ll enjoy two weeks to ramp up and bear down on new scheme tweaks designed to feature his skill set.
And who knows, maybe he gets a contract extension to go with it, but the Bengals’ 2024 puzzle locked in the final piece.
2. What’s next?
The Bengals will spend Tuesday night tracking the waiver and free-agent wire. Two spots have their focus: Running back and defensive line.
The name we continue to monitor is Samaje Perine. The Broncos looked to trade the former Bengals running back when realizing he wouldn’t make their 53, but nobody made a deal. Denver released him and Perine is once again a free agent. The last time he was a free agent, the Bengals were in heavy pursuit but surprised to lose out to Denver in March of 2023.
The Bengals are back trying to sell Perine on them once again. They have room to improve at running back. Chase Brown and Zack Moss are entrenched to carry the load, but Perine would fit nicely behind them as a proven commodity on third down, in the two-minute drill and baked-in trust with Burrow. That’s a nice combo. It could mean a one-for-one replacement for current third back Trayveon Williams or just adding Perine alongside him and snagging the roster spot from another place.
A return of Samaje Perine could fill a need for the Bengals. (Katie Stratman / USA Today)
Of course, that doesn’t mean he’s the only running back in consideration, just the most obvious fit. Several backs were cast into availability on Tuesday. Names like Kene Nwangwu (Minnesota), Michael Carter (Arizona), D’Onta Foreman (Cleveland), Deneric Prince (Kansas City) and Evan Hull (Indianapolis) are headliners for various reasons.
Nwangwu would seem particularly interesting for his kickoff-return ability (three returns for touchdowns in 68 attempts during his three seasons) and a connection with Bengals’ passing game coordinator Justin Rascati, who came over from the Vikings this offseason.
Elsewhere, keep an eye out for help at defensive line. The Bengals kept six defensive tackles, but only McKinnley Jackson weighs more than 311-pound BJ Hill. Jackson didn’t land on IR-return, indicating hope he could return in the next month, but they will be scouring the waiver wire for run-stuffing prospects. A few names to consider are former University of Cincinnati DT Jowon Briggs (Cleveland) and DT Justin Rogers (Dallas), who each visited the Bengals during the March draft period.
3. Murphy and Robbins fill IR-return
Perhaps the most impactful question to have answered on cutdown day revolved around what players would be placed on injured reserve with a designation to return. The NFL changed the rule this year to allow two players to take on IR-return designations on cutdown day. Murphy sprained his knee in the joint practice against the Colts. He was expected to miss four to six weeks, but the specifics of that timeline would determine if the Bengals kept a spot open for him. They opted to put him on IR, a disappointment for the 2023 first-round pick. Big things have been expected of Murphy, whom coordinator Lou Anarumo was planning to work into a larger role alongside Trey Hendrickson and Sam Hubbard. This opens a potentially career-altering opportunity for Joseph Ossai, finally healthy and in good standing with Anarumo. He’ll have chances in the rotation for a month to prove he’s more than just the notable flashes over his first three seasons.
Ryan Rehkow is the big winner as Brad Robbins’ hip flexor injury leaves him the last man standing in the three-punter battle. Austin McNamara was jettisoned in the middle of camp and now Rehkow, an undrafted free agent from BYU, gets four weeks to show he can be consistent. He wasn’t throughout camp and preseason games, but the injury buys him a month.
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4. Youth is served
Twelve of the 53 players on the Bengals’ initial roster are rookies. There was discussion on Saturday of draft weekend about why they wouldn’t package picks to move up to ensure landing certain players. Not only did Cincinnati sit and pick 10 times in seven rounds, but they kept all of them and added two undrafted free agents (Rehkow and LB Maema Njongmeta) to the mix.
The NFL turns and burns, but this indicates the club believes they found a potential special group in the 2024 haul. Every team loves draft picks, of course, maybe nobody more than the Bengals, but that’s a huge number.
The feel-good story is Mjongmeta, out of Wisconsin. He made himself impossible to cut as the fifth linebacker, a position the team wasn’t even sure it would employ.
There was really no doubt.
“Perfect attitude, terrific effort,” Taylor said. “You know, he’s really had a great understanding of our defense in the limited time he’s been here, and at the end of the day, you have to make plays. And I think in the preseason, everybody’s seen him make plays. He just keeps showing up. He’s been a very productive player, and he’s given it his all, and so he was deserving of that spot.”
5. Could Mims start the opener?
Rookie offensive tackle Amarius Mims not landing on injured reserve was expected, but also a great sign. Taylor kept hope alive the first-round pick could end up starting in Week 1 against the Patriots at right tackle.
“We’ll just continue to take it week to week with him, but I don’t expect him to be out there on Wednesday and Thursday,” Taylor said. “And then we’ll get through the mini-bye there, and we’ll see where next week brings us.”
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Veteran Trent Brown, signed in free agency from New England, is prepared to start against his former team. Still, the last we saw him the 380-pounder was still rotating in the joint practice against Indianapolis.
Offensive line coach Frank Pollack and Brown both expressed expectations his conditioning will be up to par by Sept. 8, but it’s interesting the door is still open for Mims to be the guy.
(Top photo: Albert Cesare / USA Today)
