Cincinnati Bengals Preseason Review: Week 1 vs. Chicago Bears

Takeaways from the Cincinnati Bengals’ victory over the Chicago Bears in Week 1 of the 2018 preseason.

The Cincinnati Bengals got their preseason off to an exciting start with a 30-27 victory over the Chicago Bears in Week 1.

With it being the first week of the preseason, the starters didn’t see a great deal of action, which will surely change in the coming weeks. Having said that, there is still plenty that we can learn from what transpired in the Bengals’ victory.

Here are some quick takeaways from the game.

Young Receivers Looking Exciting

Over the last couple offseasons, we’ve seen Cincinnati bring on numerous young receiving prospects who have exciting potential. These players have come from just about every non-trade  level of player acquisition too: inside the draft’s top 10, in the middle rounds, late-round flyers and even undrafted free agent pickups.

Before we even got to the game, we were given a hint as to just how the Bengals felt about all their young pass catchers. They released consummate veteran Brandon LaFell, with an unnamed source with the team making clear that it was based entirely on getting the young receivers more reps, per ESPN (rather than it being due to LaFell’s agent lobbying for the release so he could find his client a larger role elsewhere, as the agent suggested).

With him gone, A.J. Green now stands as the only receiver with more than two seasons under his belt entering the year. That may sound like a scary amount of inexperience, but this week gave us a great look at why it could soon prove to be a great move.

Last year’s first-round pick, John Ross, made a big mistake (slipping on a route, which led to an interception), but he also showed off his speed by turning a short catch into a 20-yard gain. 2017 mid-round draft pick Josh Malone caught three passes for 41 yards. Third-year receiver Tyler Boyd caught a short touchdown pass over the middle. Alex Erickson caught a couple passes and returned a kick and a punt.

Diminutive former undrafted receiver Kermit Whitfield added two catches (including a 27-yard effort) to what has been a nice offseason to this point for him. Last but not least from this game is Auden Tate, Cincinnati’s seventh-round selection from this year’s draft, won the Bengals the game with a contested 33-yard reception towards the end of the fourth quarter. That’s just the players who added to this particular contest’s statline, by the way: Cody Core, Devonte Boyd, Ka’Raun White and Jared Murphy are also on the roster right now and are in the mix to varying degrees.

Few, if any, of these players behind Green have done much in their professional careers to prove themselves to be legitimate impact players quite yet. There is undoubtedly plenty of talent to try building with, however. If two or three of them take a step forward this season, Cincinnati’s offense could quickly become a much more dangerous, exciting unit.

Speaking of which…