With just three weeks to go in the regular season and the Cincinnati Bengals’ playoff hopes hanging by a thread, Bleacher Report took a look at every NFL team’s biggest weaknesses before Week 16.
The Bleacher Report NFL Scouting Department had a piece of advice for every team related to those weaknesses, a move that they should make immediately, and for the Bengals, that advice is to give more snaps to Cedric Johnson.
Here’s what they had to say:
A point that has been made here throughout the season is that the Bengals need to develop some answers on the edge outside of Sam Hubbard and Trey Hendrickson. We’ve made the point that Myles Murphy needs more run, but Cedric Johnson bears mentioning as well.
Johnson was a sixth-round pick in this year’s draft and the rookie got a few reps this week. He didn’t register a sack, but he did generate some pressure when he got on the field. It’s worth it for the Bengals to up his workload and see if he makes a play.
Johnson is in just his first season with the Bengals coming out of Ole Miss and has played in just six games with three tackles.
Of the weaknesses BR listed for Cincinnati, edge rusher is third on the list, but with Johnson already on the roster not getting a ton of playing time, it would be a quick fix if he gets on the field in extra snaps and impresses.
But they are going to need to pull out all of the stops in the final three weeks if they want any chance at making the postseason since they need to win out and rely on other teams losing as well.
