Cincinnati Bengals rookie running back Chase Brown was one of the players praised by coaches coming out of the preseason.
And now the fifth-round pick has caught the eye of national outsiders, too.
Buy Bengals TicketsESPN’s Dan Graziano, for example, projected a possible breakout for all 32 teams and came up with Brown for the Bengals:
What I’m hearing: The fifth-round pick from Illinois has been impressive throughout camp and the preseason, particularly surprising the Bengals with his abilities in the passing game — a place where he didn’t get used a ton in college (28 catches last year). Could he leapfrog Chris Evans and Trayveon Williams for the No. 2 running back spot behind Joe Mixon? Maybe as the year goes on, if not right away.
Considering Trayveon Williams had his camp derailed by injury, Chris Evans is still inexperienced and the team didn’t do much to replace Samaje Perine, Brown could easily earn his way into a notable rotational role quickly.
Given Brown’s extensive workload at the collegiate level that played a role in the Bengals drafting him to begin with, his slowly morphing into a breakout wouldn’t be a stunner, even if he wasn’t one of the two rookies to win a starting job at final cuts.
