Bengals lose key contributor depsite Week 16 win
The Cincinnati Bengals have been on a roll the last few months. They have seven consecutive wins, including their Christmas Eve nail baiter against the New Patriots. Unfortunately for the defending AFC champions, they headed back to Cincinnati with a major loss. After passing an initial test, an MRI on Sunday revealed that starting right […]
The Cincinnati Bengals have been on a roll the last few months. They have seven consecutive wins, including their Christmas Eve nail baiter against the New Patriots.
Unfortunately for the defending AFC champions, they headed back to Cincinnati with a major loss. After passing an initial test, an MRI on Sunday revealed that starting right tackle La'el Collins suffered a torn ACL and MCL which will cost him the remainder of the season.
Collins was signed back in March as the main guy in a revamping of the Bengals' offensive line that gave up the third-most sacks in the NFL in 2021 (55). His season started roughly having to deal with T.J. Watt of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Micah Parsons of the Dallas Cowboys in the first two games. However, he's been pretty solid overall.
In the absence of Collins, the Bengals will turn to Hakeem Adeniji, a sixth-round pick from 2020.
Adeniji isn't your typical sixth-rounder. He has gained quite of bit of experience with 38 games played (14 starts) totaling 942 snaps. Now, he gets his shot to ball out in the final two games and the postseason.
The Bengals are fortunate to have a guy that has some battles on his resume to replace Collins. However, this is a huge loss at an extremely bad time.
Feature image David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports
