Cincinnati Reds Opening Day win highlighted by double-Martini, Frankie Montas start

Bengals Walkthru: Extensions update, keep three running backs?

Jim Owczarski
Cincinnati Enquirer

 

The Cincinnati Bengals and tight end Tyler Eifert have not yet worked out a contract extension.

The Walkthru is a daily look at the Bengals, your questions and whatever else spills from the brains of beat writers Paul Dehner Jr. and Jim Owczarski. You can follow them on Twitter (@pauldehnerjr, @JimOwczarski), Instagram (@enqbengals) as well as Enquirer Sports on Facebook for behind the scenes and breaking news.

We love interacting with the listenership with the Bengals Beat Podcast (#BBP), viewership (with all the videos), readership and social media followers and we decided to open up a Bengals mailbag during our Walkthrus to get to your pressing questions.

Here we go!

 

Good question, as we are a mere 17 days from the club’s self-imposed deadline for reaching extensions. As of today, there hasn’t been “movement” if you will – but 17 days is a long time. Remember, A.J. Green’s deal was done just before the club got on the team bus to CVG back in 2015. Deadlines have a way of making people speak a bit more often. I’m not sure there is a “priority” like, say, Green as the club does want to keep both of them here. And the positioning of the players hasn’t changed either in that they want to remain.

 

Oh yeah, Ross will definitely play. But your point is well taken in that if Brandon LaFell and Tyler Boyd remain healthy all season offensive coordinator Ken Zampese will have to find creative ways to get Ross on the field and maximize his talents. It’s an advantage, I think, because Ross doesn’t have to play a ton of snaps and be amazing. The Bengals should be able to put him in position to succeed.

 

Here at the outset, I think Uzomah could be an IR move and tagged as designated to return — which would be near mid-season (it's a mandatory eight-week stay) over Williams largely because Uzomah just moved to crutches and a walking boot and honestly, he was a healthy inactive at times. I think with Tyler Eifert, Tyler Kroft and Ryan Hewitt they're set there for now. Williams will miss a few weeks, and he's a starter.

As for running back, I think it's a non-starter for special teams. All four are active. If you go short there with just three — that means Joe Mixon and either Giovani Bernard and Jeremy Hill have to play special teams in some capacity. You're just running out of bodies. Burkhead and Peerman were key specialists in their time here together. Could they decide to go with three? Sure. But I'd like to see Darrin Simmons on some truth serum then.

 

Of all time? Hard choice. I like ice cream so I have to go with the big helmet sundaes you can get at pretty much any baseball stadium. Hate to go so generic, but … I like ice cream and souvenirs. I think they should do full-size Bengals helmets full of it.

 

Actually, the “character” / people running the @JessicaJones account was pretty awesome. And, surprisingly, so were its fans. I’ve seen such things go terribly wrong for people when the Twitter fanatics get their claws into someone but actually, it was pretty fun. “The Defenders” got a little better as it went and they did a good job convincing me to give “Jessica Jones” a shot.

Bengals tweet of the day

Awesome.

 

In case you missed it

Around the division

Baltimore:Four Ravens starters on offense remain sidelined, as well as four other guys as the 2017 opener nears.

Cleveland:The Browns have a quarterback?

Pittsburgh:Good to see a teammate sticking up for another … as opposed to Antonio Brown thinking Le’Veon Bell should have shown up earlier.

Bengals old video of the day

Well, I couldn’t just leave the Super Bowl XXIII videos with just the weird pregame stuff. Sorry.

Bengals new video of the day

Just piling it on, I know.

And finally

In honor of Netflix and Marvel’s Jessica Jones, who so beautifully destroyed by Twitter mentions after Tuesday’s Walkthru, I leave you with this: