NFL: Breaking down the 2015 Cincinnati Bengals

Running Backs

Starter: Jeremy Hill

Backup: Giovani Bernard, Rex Burkhead, Cedric Peerman, James Wilder Jr, Terrell Watson [R], Ryan Hewitt (FB)

It’s an interesting situation in the backfield for the Cincinnati Bengals, as Jeremy Hill stole the job mid-season from Giovani Bernard, despite Bernard performing pretty well overall. Hill is a more powerful runner though, and eventually the broken tackles and longer runs convinced the team that he was their guy. With a 5.1 yards-per-carry average and 1,124 yards total, who can argue?

He’ll continue to get better and those run totals will go up as he gets more of the carries.

That isn’t to say we’ll never hear from Gio Bernard again. He has game-breaking speed and leg=breaking agility, so there is a role here for him. And as offensive coordinator Hue Jackson loves him some ground attack, there should be plenty of carries to go around. And Bernard is very good catching passes out of the backfield.

I’m not sure that Bernard can handle a full load anyway – he did break down a bit last year – but there could also be some interest in trading for him if Hill is really the main man with no doubt.

As long as he is in the fold though, it leaves Rex Burkhead and Cedric Peerman as safety nets, game day inactives or special teams players.

Peerman has only ever really been a special teams guy and the Bengals aren’t (and never had been) expecting more from him. Burkhead has more regular, running back value although Cincinnati.com’s Paul Dehner Jr. has said that he is spending some time at receiver. Dehner points out that this is not exactly new, as they did it against the Colts in their 2014 playoff loss, so it remains to be seen how serious they are about the move.

James Wilder Jr. might get moved to fullback, according to Geoff Hobson at Bengals.com, in an effort to find a backup for Ryan Hewitt. It’s hard to say if Wilder can make the move—Hobson points out that fullbacks get judged on blocking not running and with Wilder mostly on the practice squad, we have no idea if he can do it.

An interesting sleeper is rookie street free agent Terell Watson. Hailing from super-small school Azusa Pacific, Watson was very productive in his senior year and has size, speed and explosiveness. He’s the sort of guy who could surprise people, but he’s buried in Cincinnati so we are unlikely to see much of him.

Finally, we go back to Hewitt at fullback. He did very well for the Bengals last season as an undrafted free agent, showing the ability to block in the backfield or at the edge of the line. Since the Bengals like that power rushing attack, he will see plenty of work.

At the end of the day, this is a pretty strong group. It hinges on Hill and Bernard for the most part and there is a good chance some of the players on the depth chart now will be gone come the end of summer. As long as Hill is good to go, though, the Bengals should be productive on the ground.

Next: Wide Receivers-Tight Ends