The 2023 campaign was a lost season for the Cincinnati Bengals. Joe Burrow injured his lower leg during training camp last season, which impacted the quarterback's play during the opening weeks of the year. His week 11 wrist injury derailed Cincinnati's playoff hopes too.
He's healthy now and the Bengals remain one of the best teams in the AFC. But, the team still has some training camp battles to sort out first before kicking off the 2024 NFL season. The most notable ones are at running back and tight end.
Who will be Bengals RB1?
The Bengals made a big switch at running back this season by moving on from veteran Joe Mixon. The veteran was making a lot of money but not performing to that level of pay. He averaged just four yards per carry last year, which has become a bit of a trend for the Oklahoma product. Mixon has averaged more than 4.2 yards per carry once in his career, and that was all the way back in 2018.
Cincinnati appears to want to have a split backfield this year to replace Mixon's production. One of those backs will be Zack Moss. Moss failed to live up to his third-round draft capital in the Buffalo Bills organization, but found his footing with Indianapolis Colts. He had some big games filling in for Jonathan Taylor last year, including a 165-yard, two-touchdown performance against the Tennessee Titans in Week 5.
He joins Chase Brown in the Bengals' backfield. Brown was a fifth-round pick by the team in last year's draft. He didn't play much as a rookie. In fact, he had just two carries for six yards under his belt until Week 13 of the 2023 season. But from there, he earned a role and flashed some big play ability.
These two look like an ideal thunder-and-lightning pairing for Cincinnati to deploy. The question now becomes how much will each play?
Moss is the more consistent runner of the two and the one more capable of handling a bigger workload on a weekly basis. Brown gets it done with efficiency. How this Bengals backfield for the 2024 season gets split will get determined by this training camp battle
Bengals must find their tight end
Cincinnati's wide receivers in Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins do the majority of the heavy lifting in their pass attack. Even though they drafted Jermaine Burton in the 2024 NFL Draft and Charlie Jones and Andrei Iosivas last year, the Bengals could afford to have a tight end step up to help replace Tyler Boyd.
They've brought in a few options to do so. They tried Hayden Hurst in 2022, and he was solid for them, but wasn't exactly anything special either. Cincinnati also signed Irv Smith Jr. last year, but he was a dud. He only caught 18 passes for 115 yards and one touchdown in 12 games. That's not going to get it done.
The Bengals did get solid production from journeyman Tanner Hudson at that position midway through the 2023 season. Hudson caught 39 of 50 targets for 352 yards and one touchdown across 12 games for Cincinnati last year. He will have to battle Mike Gesicki in training camp to become the primary tight end for the Bengals in the 2024 season.
Gesicki's career got off to a hot start, but has fizzled in the last couple of years. He had back-to-back seasons of at least 703 receiving yards in 2020 and 2021, but hasn't sustained that level of production. Gesicki has 606 yards in the two years since.
Cincinnati also drafted former Michigan and Iowa tight end Erick All Jr., but he is on the PUP list rehabbing a torn ACL. He has legit skills that could make him their tight of the future. But the Bengals really need one of Gesicki or Hudson to shine in this training camp battle to get them another reliable weapon for the 2024 season. What happens at this position in Cincinnati will be worth monitoring.
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