Cincinnati Bengals: Chris Evans could wind up playing major role
The Cincinnati Bengals don’t have the best depth at the running back position. How big could rookie Chris Evans’ role be in 2021?
If you’ve come for Captain America content, unfortunately, you’ve come to the wrong place. However, you’re welcome to stay for some discourse on the Cincinnati Bengals’ running back position, which is currently led by Joe Mixon.
The Bengals are heading into the 2021 season with reasonably high expectations given the projected development of quarterback Joe Burrow, even considering Burrow’s ugly injury in 2020.
One of the key pieces of the Cincinnati Bengals‘ offense for 2021 is running back Joe Mixon, who is coming off of a season in which he played just six games. Mixon was well on his way to superstardom after his first three NFL seasons before a down 2020, and as of right now, how confident can the Bengals really be in their depth behind him at the position?
That is where Chris Evans — not Captain America — can factor into things in a significant way.
Cincinnati Bengals rookie Chris Evans can have a huge impact
The Cincinnati Bengals’ depth chart at the running back position is not solidified at this point, but the current pecking order can be roughly projected like this:
- Joe Mixon (6 games in 2020)
- Samaje Perine (301 rushing yards in 2020)
- Trayveon Williams (157 rushing yards in 2020)
- Chris Evans
- Jacques Patrick
- Pooka Williams
The Bengals let Giovani Bernard walk this offseason and he ended up signing a very underrated deal with the Super Bowl Champion Buccaneers.
The road is clearly paved for a rookie like Evans — a sixth-round pick out of Michigan — to have possibly a RB2 role immediately.
Chris Evans was drafted with pick 202 of round 6 in the 2021 draft class. He scored a 9.85 RAS out of a possible 10.00. This ranked 24 out of 1490 RB from 1987 to 2021. https://t.co/4l5IVdjkhl #RAS #Bengals pic.twitter.com/cxSwb07qKq
— Kent Lee Platte (@MathBomb) May 1, 2021
The thing with Evans is, he also is coming off of a season in which he only played six games and had a combined 25 touches in those six games. Evans was most productive at Michigan from 2016-18 before missing the 2019 season.
Still, the Cincinnati Bengals are banking on his elite metrics in the speed and explosiveness categories as a late-round pick and his history of production translating to the next level.
With a player like Evans, who barely has any tape at all since 2018, you are really taking a risk going into the regular season with a top back who played only six games a season ago and two other backups who have proven next to nothing.
Still, it reiterates the fact that Evans has a clearly paved path to playing time and will have a serious shot at making an impact on the Cincinnati Bengals offense sooner rather than later.