Giovani Bernard will continue to get high volume of touches

The Cincinnati Bengals were always expected to become a running team with new offensive coordinator Hue Jackson, and the team’s former running backs coach has certainly met our expectations, especially with his usage of agile second-year back Giovani Bernard. Unlike many 5’9″ RBs, Bernard doesn’t shy away from contact, and he has some muscle on him at 208 pounds. With 52 touches already this season, some are wondering if the Bengals will spell him far more often with impressive rookie Jeremy Hill, who is ridiculously good at running people over, but the Bengals don’t have any issues with Bernard’s ability to hold up under the pressure of a high volume of touches.

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When asked if the coaching staff is concerned with Bernard’s workload, ESPN NFL Nation’s Coley Harvey replied in his mailbag feature that the coaching staff doesn’t see any issues here. In fact, they would like Bernard to continue to be their “bell cow”, and neither the Bengals nor Bernard are worried about him getting beaten up due to the touches. Per Harvey, the team aims to give him over 300 touches per season, and this number was definitely heard frequently during the offseason.

Although Bernard will continue to be the focal point of this offense, we should still expect Hill to get plenty of touches, especially as the Bengals grow more confident with his ability. Hill is too talented to sit, and he should form a very good 1-2 punch of talented, young backs for the Bengals offense.

Last season, Bernard played in all 16 games and had 56 receptions, and he is currently averaging 5.5 receptions per game but just 3.4 yards per carry on about 20 carries per game. At this rate of about 25 touches per game, Bernard would finish the year with 400 touches, so some of those will eventually get siphoned off to Hill. Honestly, that will be better, because it will optimize Bernard’s touches and keep him fresh, even if he clearly doesn’t want to lose those carries.