Young Bengals RB Chris Brown Boosts Playoff Hopes

 

It’s Week 16 of the NFL regular season, so you can bet that hardly any players on the field are feeling 100 percent. The length of the campaign affects these guys – trust me. That’s why depth is so important this season. Players get injured and others have to step up. In other cases, teams try to lighten the load on a starter so he can be at full strength in the playoffs. Today, I take a look at freshman running backs who could make an impact in this area this year and into the postseason as the division and wild card races heat up as we go down the stretch. Here are the three competitors in alphabetical order. Joe Mixon logged a lot of mileage this season, accounting for 69 percent of his team’s rushing yards and 80 percent of his touchdowns (both No. 1 among running backs, according to NFL Research). That’s why the fact that the Bengals have given Brown more opportunities in recent weeks seems significant. During the three-game hitting streak, the rookie has 30 touchdowns and 217 passing yards. Before that, he had just five touches for 13 yards in six career games. Two Bengal sand#039; There have been four 100-yard games this season over the last three weeks, with Mixon and Brown sharing the position. Brown is also an asset in the passing game, as evidenced by his catch and run for a 54-yard touchdown, where he showed long speed and elusiveness in the open field. That rushing attack will be key to Cincyand’s success, especially now that the offense is without star WR Ja’Marr Chase, at least this week and in the Pittsburgh game.