Cincinnati Bengals safety Tycen Anderson is ready to move into a bigger role on special teams after coming back from an injury.
Namely, he’s ready to stay healthy and run up the stats while covering kicks and punts.
Anderson is on his way back from a torn ACL suffered in Week 8 of last season and Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com recently chronicled his comeback bid:
Anderson is confident he’s on the verge of playing his first full season since the Bengals targeted him in the 2022 fifth round and traded up to get him. He knows this upcoming Monday marks the fifth-month anniversary of his surgery and that the usual timeline is six-to-nine months. After talking to his patients Joe Burrow and Joe Bachie, Anderson opted for famed knee surgeon Neal ElAttrache and he’s extremely confident about being ready for late July after only the ACL and not the MCL or PCL had to be worked on.
A fifth-round pick by the Bengals in 2022, injury prevented Anderson from playing as a rookie and cut his sophomore season short.
But the stunning athleticism that made him a sleeper pick by the Bengals in the draft flashed in a big way last season before the injury.
Now, with even more dramatic turnover at safety after the arrivals of Geno Stone and Vonn Bell, the Bengals need Anderson to serve as critical base-defense depth while assuming a Michael Thomas-like role on special teams.