Cincinnati Bengals Preseason: Players to watch vs Redskins

A quick view of some Cincinnati Bengals to watch during their preseason matchup versus the Washington Redskins.

Two weeks into the preseason, the Cincinnati Bengals have plenty which should both excite and concern the team and fans about their roster for the upcoming season.

Some areas which have emerged in the spotlight — such as their heated kicker battle — should be a fortuitous sign of what’s to come. Others — like their defense’s propensity for allowing long drives — could be the early evidence of problems which will cause a second-straight season outside the playoff picture.

With starters tending to see their most game action before the games actually matter, the third week of the preseason is where we’ll get our best idea of what teams may be this coming year. Preseason standings may mean nothing to the regular season, but the performance of those who are in line for key roles could be a paramount vision of how they will perform when it does matter.

With that in mind, here’s a few important players to watch when Cincinnati plays Washington this weekend…

Cedric Ogbuehi and Jake Fisher

This offseason saw Cincinnati dramatically work towards improving their talent at the skill positions across their offense. The additions of players like John Ross, Joe Mixon and Josh Malone help give quarterback Andy Dalton plenty of options to target and lean on this year.

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While those areas should be strengths, however, the blockers who will be expected to provide enough time and space for plays to be made have been allotted little new help, with the expectation being that those already involved will step up to a level they’ve yet to prove capable of. Heading that list is these two young tackles.

Of course, the plan all along with Ogbuehi and Fisher was to do exactly this. Selected in back-to-back rounds to open Cincinnati’s 2015 draft, this pair was expected to be the future tackles for years to come. Though the exact path to that future wasn’t crystallized, having a potential succession plan in place for Andrew Whitworth and Andre Smith (the starting tackles at the time) that included two highly-drafted tackles appeared a quality course of action.

A couple years later, that plan appears fraught with issues.

Whitworth continued producing at an elite level through 2016, but Smith was bad enough in 2015 to find himself fighting for a job in Minnesota last year (one which he never really had much chance to hold due to injury ending his year early). With him seemingly moved on from, Ogbuehi and Fisher got the chance to show their abilities probably early than expected out at right tackle.

Unfortunately, both struggled mightily in what time they did manage to line up out there. Looking at Pro Football Focus Edge‘s grading metrics, Ogbuehi rated a miserable 44.2 (on a 0-100 scale) across 680 overall blocking snaps. Fisher saw less than half that amount of time (296 snaps), but was nearly as bad as his teammate (47.8 overall).

For Cincinnati to succeed this season, these two need to be much better than that. It isn’t like there’s anywhere else to really turn at this point; past them are Smith (two seasons removed from a quality year of blocking; also in the midst of an attempted switch to guard), Eric Winston (four years since he put up a good season), and two undrafted free agents (Landon Lechler, Kent Perkins). Barring injuries, these two are likely entrenched as starters no matter how bad they may falter.

This week will be the closest thing we get to regular season action, and the snap counts should be emblematic of that. With starters routinely playing into the second half of these third preseason contests, we should get a handful of drives seeing if Ogbuehi and Fisher will have any hope of keeping the pocket open and the edges clean for their offense to run and pass effectively.

Josh Shaw

Following the game against the Chiefs, I mentioned how safety depth sits as a huge problem for the Bengals this year. With all the injuries which have decimated the position (three of the top four players on the depth chart either have missed significant time in the past month or will miss it going forward), the team will need to get creative with how it addresses the issue.

Adding a name or two following the cuts to get rosters to 53 players in a couple weeks shouldn’t be out of the question, but if the team would rather find an internal answer, Shaw might be part of the solution. As a player who already spends significant time working as a slot corner, he could potentially slide over to safety for stretches depending on the coverage and personnel package.

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It may not be necessary for this particular week, with George Iloka having recently returned from injury and the combination of Clayton Fejedelem and Derron Smith fighting for the snaps left open in the early goings of this season due to Shawn Williams’ injury, but this would be a great time to at least test out some looks with Shaw.

If Fejedelem or Smith prove unworthy of increased roles — or injuries continue to impede the availability of practically the entire safety group — Cincinnati will need somebody capable of making a positive impact on the back end. While it wouldn’t be the role he’s best suited for, Shaw could turn out to be the best option available to the Bengals beside Iloka (at least in stretches).

Paul Dawson

Speaking of areas with issues, it appears the misfortune bug has chosen Cincinnati’s linebackers as its next target. Luckily this spot hasn’t seen the most important guys going down with injury at least. Kevin Minter has been excused for a couple recent practices, but the other starters have been fine.

It’s the backups who have concerns. Per ESPN’s Katherine Terrell, Brandon Bell and Hardy Nickerson have had some injuries to deal with. Dawson has as well, but despite wearing a cast he’s managed to get himself back on the field.

Though it isn’t the circumstances one would hope for, this could be his chance to finally earn himself a role with the team.

So far, he’s gone from touted (though troubled) third round draft pick to never even seeing the field for a single snap since being selected two years ago. His lack of discipline and work ethic have done him no favors in that time, and even helped get him cut from the team heading into last season.

Cincinnati does see something in him — considering where they drafted him, and bringing him back not long after the cut — but there’s only so many chances a player can be given before a team will ultimately move on. Having his fellow backups missing valuable time now could help provide him more time in practice and in preseason games by default; it’ll be up to him to show he’s actually worthy of it.

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Seeing that he’s willing to play with a cast is a positive sign that he may be improving the character aspect of his equation. If his play on the field has improved as well, he could elevate himself to being the next man up at his position with a strong showing this weekend.