Cincinnati Bengals: Players to watch in Preseason Week 4
By Kenn Korb
RB Brian Hill
The running back position for Cincinnati is in a strange spot. While the team has struggled mightily to produce on the ground during the preseason, the team actually has a cadre of talented running back options — so many there may be five different pure tailbacks with a case for a roster spot.
Of course, there’s little chance the team keeps that many, but there may be too much talent here, thereby forcing the team towards keeping four. Joe Mixon and Giovani Bernard are clearly making it, but there is a major battle for the spot(s) behind them. That battle is between three players: Mark Walton, Tra Carson, and Hill.
Walton is here exclusively due to his draft status and related player comps. He has been the furthest thing from a proven asset in this preseason: across three contests so far, he’s carried the ball 13 times for a grand total of…two yards. In the opening preseason contest, he averaged less than that per attempt across seven carries; in the two games since, his production has been in the negatives.
Still, there’s plenty working in his favor. He’s a mid-round 2018 draft pick — a designation which almost always saves a player for their first offseason regardless of production — for a team which tends to place higher value on their draftees than other franchises. Add in how he was considered the steal of the draft by some and his pre-draft player comparisons (among them was Bernard) and he seems to have a long-term place in the team’s plans.
Assuming he makes the roster in some fashion, that may leave just enough room for one of Carson and Hill. That battle is actually an intriguing one, by the way. Each has spent time with the team before this offseason already (Carson was here last preseason; Hill joined the team during the regular season), and the competition couldn’t be closer now.
Hill was good enough that the team brought him in from Atlanta, and while he rarely played (19 snaps) he did manage a couple big plays as the No. 3 back (an 11-yard run and a 34-yard reception in a win vs Detroit). This preseason, he’s shown off that ability yet again in each of the three preseason games so far: an 18-yard rush against Chicago, a 44-yard catch-and-run vs. Dallas, and a 13-yard rush against Buffalo.
He can take the ball and make something happen for his offense — something this team desperately needs an infusion of if they are to make a major improvement on their bottom-ranked offense from last season.
Carson offers his own version of what the offense needs, however. It starts with his style as a runner. While Hill has decent play-making ability, he is very much in the same stylistic vein of player as the top two players in the pecking order; each can make big plays, but there is a viable question as to whether any of them can hold up if tasked with pounding the ball up the middle with consistency.
Carson has the power to bang up the middle, and he is proving as consistent as one can hope. Here’s his production on the ground in each preseason game so far: six carries, 24 yards (vs. Chicago); six carries, 24 yards (vs. Dallas); four carries, 24 yards (vs. Buffalo).
There’s a strong case for either to make the roster, but unless Cincinnati makes a surprising turn and cuts Walton, it is hard to believe they can find a way to keep both. It’s Hill’s potential play-making versus Carson’s power running consistency for a final spot, with one last chance for each to show off just how much of a difference their respective strength can make.
The better fit of Carson’s skill-set seems like an advantage, but Hill should have plenty of opportunity in this final preseason game to show his talents are good enough to overshadow that issue.