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Cincinnati Bengals

This is a committee. Tee Higgins holds 22.4% of the targets, and the 15 tracked pass-catchers project for 25 receptions and 263 receiving yards in week 7.

Full Cincinnati Bengals depth chart — every player who took a snap, ranked by how many.

Also on the Cincinnati Bengals: Joe Burrow (quarterback), Evan McPherson (kicker), Cincinnati Bengals D/ST (defense).

What this staff chooses

The Cincinnati Bengals pass more than the situation calls for: pass rate over expectation +7.8%, 3rd of 32, on 60 plays a game (15th). Raw pass rate is 64.1%, but that follows the scoreboard — a trailing team throws. PROE subtracts the league rate for the same down, distance and score, so what is left is the CHOICE.

Pass rate over expectation is the most repeatable offensive trait we measure: split the season into odd and even weeks and a team agrees with itself at 0.84. Most things a defense does sit near 0.32.

This seasonLeague rank
Pass rate over expectation+7.8%3rd
Plays per game60.215th
Points per game25.69th

The line, and the front it faces

The offensive line has allowed pressure on 22.7% of dropbacks (16th) and opened 2.36 yards before contact a carry (18th). The defense pressures the quarterback on 31.1% of opposing dropbacks (4th).

This seasonLeague rank
Pressure allowed, per dropback22.7%16th
Yards before contact, per carry2.3618th
Pressure generated, per dropback31.1%4th

What this defense concedes

Of the passes thrown at the Cincinnati Bengals, 56% go to receivers, 30% to tight ends and 14% to backs. Opponents average 7.63 yards a target (21st).

Read this half with more caution than the half above. How a defense DISTRIBUTES the targets it faces repeats moderately — 0.34 for backs, 0.23 for receivers, 0.09 for tight ends. How many YARDS it allows a tight end per target repeats at 0.02, which is indistinguishable from chance. "Weak against tight ends" is the least reproducible claim in this dataset and one of the most repeated.

56%30%14%ReceiversTight endsBacks

Team figures from 5 games this season. Ranks are among the 32 teams on the same measure.

Season by season

This staff is passing more than it has: pass rate over expectation +7.8% this season against +3.4% across the previous 10 seasons.

Cincinnati Bengals: pass rate over expectation by season051020162017201820192020202120222023202420252026Over expectationseasonpercentage points over expected
Pass rate over expectation subtracts the league rate for the same down, distance and score, so it is what the STAFF chose rather than what the scoreboard forced. It repeats at 0.84 (Spearman-Brown), the most reliable offensive trait measured in this project.
Cincinnati Bengals: points scored and allowed by season01020304020162017201820192020202120222023202420252026ScoredAllowedseasonpoints per game
Regular-season averages. Points scored carries further year to year than points allowed, which is the same asymmetry that runs through everything here: offense reproduces, defense mostly does not.

Pass rate over expectation from 2016; points from the same seasons. Each season is that season's regular-season average.

Who owns the targets

Trailing target share, largest first. Target share reproduces at 0.92 between halves of a season, so this is a stable picture of the pecking order rather than a snapshot of one good game.

22%22%15%9%9%33%Tee HigginsJa'Marr ChaseChase BrownMike GesickiDohnte MeyersEveryone else

Receivers

PlayerSnap shareTarget shareProj. catchesProj. rec yardsIf he sits
Tee Higgins WR277%22.4%4.460who benefits
Ja'Marr Chase WR178%22.2%6.374who benefits
Dohnte Meyers WR342%8.6%2.330—
Mitchell Tinsley WR depth36%6.6%0.817—
Andrei Iosivas WR depth57%6.0%0.0——
Colbie Young WR depth11%2.0%0.85—
Ke'Shawn Williams WR depth6%0.3%0.10—

Tight ends

PlayerSnap shareTarget shareProj. catchesProj. rec yardsIf he sits
Mike Gesicki TE145%8.9%2.124who benefits
Tanner Hudson TE226%5.0%0.0—who benefits
Erick All TE332%3.9%1.417—
Drew Sample TE depth51%3.5%1.012—
Jack Endries TE depth2%0.0%0.8——

Backs

PlayerSnap shareTarget shareProj. catchesProj. rec yardsIf he sits
Chase Brown RB10%14.6%3.919who benefits
Samaje Perine RB20%5.7%1.15who benefits
Tahj Brooks RB30%0.5%0.20—

The ground game

Projected for 20 carries and 76 rushing yards, with Chase Brown taking 65% of the work. Carries per game is the second most repeatable thing a player has — 0.97 between halves of a season — so a backfield split holds up far better than a touchdown rate does.

PlayerCarriesRush ydsYds/carryAnytime TD
Chase Brown RB12.7453.5030%
Samaje Perine RB7.0324.5719%
137Chase BrownSamaje Perine

Whose role has changed since last season

Snap share this season against last, for anyone who has moved at least six points. This is the input the model leans on hardest early in a year, because snap share is already reliable at 0.84 after two games while receptions manage 0.66.

Cincinnati Bengals snap share changeMitchell Tinsley+11.925→36%Tanner Hudson+8.517→26%Mike Gesicki+6.739→45%Ja'Marr Chase-16.294→78%Andrei Iosivas-19.276→57%points of snap share

Ranked by trailing target share, tie-broken on snap share · concentration measured as a Herfindahl index over the tracked room · projections as-of-week with no lookahead