Starting faster and better should be a priority for the Cincinnati Bengals this year. The team has never won its first two regular season games under head coach Zac Taylor.
Doing so would make securing the elusive No. 1 seed come playoff time a whole lot easier. Whether it be a quarterback who was not 100%, an offensive line that wasn’t cohesive, or just a lack of talent, the Bengals have struggled out of the gate for the past four years.
The first two weeks in the season are often chaotic, but one way to minimize the variability is to knock off some rust beforehand without getting too careless.
That’s right, we’re talking preseason snaps. And by we’re talking, I mean Taylor’s talking. Taylor mentioned Monday morning to reporters that he’s open to some starters playing preseason snaps next month.
Exactly zero starters on either side of the ball played in August last year. Specifically for the offensive players, there was a reason behind that. “Last year, let’s start with that. Joe Burrow not playing affects a lot of different players at different positions,” Taylor said.
“This year we’ll continue to see how every week goes, but I wouldn’t take off the table our guys getting some reps in at least one of these games.”
With Burrow missing so much practice time recovering from an appendectomy, offensive starters simply didn’t get reps with him until right before the regular season started.
Having 10 starters play with then backup quarterback Brandon Allen would’ve been a potential issue right before Burrow’s eventual return. For simplicity’s sake, Taylor opted to keep the second-string working with the corresponding quarterback in the preseason to get a proper evaluation on those players, and to ensure there’s minimal issues when the regular season began with the starters.
The unfortunate downside was how the offense performed to start the season. Would giving Ja’Marr Chase, Joe Mixon, and other starters reps with Allen had helped the unit perform better in September? No one can possibly know now, but many pointed to their lack of reps as a reason for the rust.
Taylor has been consistent in ensuring his starters don’t play too much preseason ball for the sake of keeping them healthy for the regular season. That philosophy will not change even if they play a drive or two next month, but getting them out there at least once seems to be in the cards.
