So the Bengals much-ballyhooed offense has struggle as training camp has gotten underway.
The defense, re-made with several new parts and several holdovers, has played well.
Sam Hubbard has been very good with Mike Hilton leading a re-charged secondary. Jesse Bates continues to get much acclaim about being the best, at least one of the best, safeties in the game.
Now its August and it's training camp and all things need to be guarded until games are played.
But every team will play defense in the NFL and whether the team overall is any good, the players can still score for you so do not overlook some of the defenders for the Bengal. Hubbard, Bates, Vonn Bell, Germaine Pratt at linebacker and likely others will be worthy IDP plays. The defense as a whole is not worthy at this point unless special teams steps up.
Sometimes coaches set up the 7 on 7 or offensive line vs defensive line periods during practice to favor one group over another. The thought is let's put an offense with scripted plays against the best possible defensive alignment. If the offense can beat that, great. We have something, but the expectation is some times for the coaches to see how the offense or defense handles the adversity.
That may be the case with the offense's struggles early in camp. I mean some pundits are saying this offense is not going to be stopped. Burrow, Mixon, Higgins, Boyd, Chase as good as any quintet out there.
The offensive line has been OK in 1 on 1 drills and while that may not be getting better, the play of that unit as a whole is more important and coach Frank Pollack is being praised highly for his work in developing a unit that works cohesively. It will come if all the top guys remain healthy.
In general with the offense a step behind, maybe the defensive script was set up to stop the offensive script. See how Burrow adjusts or improvises on the run, so to speak.
With that in mind, don't bail on the offensive players for this team. They will produce. Maybe garbarge time in some cases but they will put up yards and points.
There haven't been any players jumping out that are unexpected to this point but that can change with injuries or preseason games. WR Auden Tate, RB Chris Evans, and TE CJ Uzomah are the most likely players to jump in to the mix once games start. Uzomah is my choice among those guys to have an impact. So we'll keep an eye on those guys.

 

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