Cincinnati Bengals: Final 53-man roster cut predictions for 2018
By Kenn Korb
Tight Ends
* = starters; + = make roster
Moritz Bohringer, +Carter Cethan, *Tyler Eifert, Jordan Franks, Ryan Hewitt, +Tyler Kroft, Kayaune Ross, Mason Schreck, +C.J. Uzomah
For the most part, there isn’t much new to discuss with this position group. The top three players here appears like it’ll be the exact same as it has been in each of the past three seasons.
The group is again led by the perpetually injured Eifert. In his five season career, he has never played all 16 games even once, has only played double-digit games twice, and has been active for less than half of the possible games his team has played in that time (39 of 80). His 2015 season was great (52 receptions, 615 yards, 13 touchdown catches), but by now the team must be resigned to the fact that it is as big an outlier as they have in their lineup.
If he can stay healthy enough to make it three seasons with 10+ games played, seeing a middle ground between his rookie season (2013: 39 catches, 445 yards, two scores) and his best season would be an acceptable — and likely clamored for — outcome.
With Eifert unlikely to make it through the season intact (there’s always hope, but don’t hold your breath), his backups are especially important. After multiple years of little-to-no impact, Kroft showed he was able to put in a decent Eifert impersonation in 2017 while the latter missed all but two games.
Kroft played 825 snaps — one of three non-quarterback skill position players to eclipse 800 — on his way to a career year: 42 catches, 404 yards, seven touchdowns. He isn’t as great as a healthy Eifert in terms of acting as a red zone weapon, but he’s proven to at least be a useful backup plan when the top option isn’t available.
Entering last year, the assumption seemed to be that Uzomah would become the one to step up if (when) Eifert went down, but his own injuries opened the door for Kroft and the team never really looked back.
He was still around though (his 211 snaps were second-most at the position) and does, in theory, offer a more athletic alternative for the offense to work with from the tight end spot. If there were a bigger investment in the position in the offseason Uzomah may be on tenuous ground, but for the fourth straight year they seem poised to have him firmly as part of their plans.
The one big change at the position comes with changing course on who the utility tight end will be. For years, Hewitt kept a spot on this roster despite almost never actually playing snaps for the team. With the offensive coordinator change which was made though, Hewitt finally seems to be on the way out.
His preseason snaps stayed low while another player started (Carter) began getting big chunks of snaps. Carter can take on every role Hewitt was given previously, and he is a more dynamic option by just about any discernible measure.