Cincinnati Bengals: Players to watch vs. Browns in Week 4
By Kenn Korb
Looking at a few key Cincinnati Bengals players in their Week 4 matchup with the Cleveland Browns.
The results of Week 3 leave the Cincinnati Bengals in an unsavory position. They sit at 0-3 through three games, and we’ve only seen five teams since 1980 turn this sort of abysmal start into a playoff berth.
Still, despite the odds, it is far too early to call it a season just yet. September may have been a blunderous month for the Bengals, but October at least starts out better. to begin the second month of the year, Cincinnati faces their division rival, the Cleveland Browns.
Based on what we expect of both teams, Cincinnati should be the group who wins this game. Nothing is set in stone, however, and this game could easily turn on them in the manner we’ve seen each of their initial three contests go.
Here are the players on their roster who will be key to breaking through this ignominious 0-3 opening slump and finally putting a tally in the win column for 2017.
3. Tyler Kroft
As it seems to happen every year, it appears star Bengals tight end Tyler Eifert is going to be missing significant time due to injury. Losing Eifert (yet again) is a major blow to an offense that already needs every break it can possibly be granted to help keep whatever slight postseason hopes may remain.
It already appears that Kroft will be the nominal No. 1 tight end while Eifert is out. With no Eifert last week versus Green Bay, Kroft held a significant advantage in snap count (60, compared to Uzomah’s 17), and that appears likely to continue for now. If Kroft doesn’t significantly improve his actual play on his snaps, however, he may find himself swapping spots with Uzomah in the rotation.
In 101 snaps so far this year, Pro Football Focus Edge gives Kroft a 49.2 overall grade. This isn’t just about him falling short as a receiving game option, either. Not only is he lacking in that regard, but his blocking on both running and passing plays each still graded out worse in PFF’s metrics. Though it hurts Cincinnati to not have Eifert in the game, they have plenty of quality options in the passing game even if he is unavailable. he makes the group much more dangerous, sure, but they should still be able to build a successful attack without him.
They don’t need star power from Kroft, but having someone that can at least not be a minus while running a few routes over the middle would make things much easier on everybody. If he can be a checkdown, fourth-option type who his quarterback can turn to when pressure inevitably reaches him (which it will), that will keep Cincinnati moving the ball enough to score with some consistency. If he can also toss in a bit of chipping/blocking along the way too, that’s even better.
If he doesn’t, an offense stacked with skill position weapons likely continues to stall out far more than it should, and this game stays close enough to possibly let Cleveland’s DeShone Kizer actually seal away one of these late comeback attempts he’s tried to engineer.