Who are the top three players on the Cincinnati Bengals?
The question isn’t as simple as one might think. There are offensive stars like Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase, of course. But defenders like D.J. Reader don’t necessarily get the recognition they deserve, either.
Ben Linsey at Pro Football Focus tried to tackle this topic recently while naming each team’s top three players and came up with the following:
- QB Joe Burrow
- WR Ja’Marr Chase
- WR Tee Higgins
Nothing too shocking there — especially considering those wideouts were just ranked among the NFL’s best and two of those names are some of the top players under 25 years old in the entire NFL.
Linsey explained the selections:
“Chase and Higgins both finished the 2021 season as top-10 wide receivers in PFF grade. It was clear that those two, along with Tyler Boyd, played a big role in Burrow’s second-year jump. Burrow notched a league-high 13 passing touchdowns on throws 20-plus yards downfield in 2021 compared to just one as a rookie.”
What might be more interesting, though, is the “also considered” section:
- DI D.J. Reader
- Edge Trey Hendrickson
- S Jessie Bates
Reader, especially, is one of the most dominant players in the league but doesn’t get the flashy stats. Hendrickson does after breaking out and avoiding the one-year wonder label.
And then there’s Bates, who continues to sit in a franchise tag/extension standoff with the team.
The fact it’s almost difficult to narrow the list down to three — and they’re all right in the middle of their primes — should be considered a good thing.
