Bengals' preseason injury is proving to be far more costly than previously imagined
A plethora of injuries have hit the Cincinnati Bengals' defensive line in the past two months. The current defensive tackle grouping is nothing at all what the team pictured it would be back in July.Just next to that mess on the edge is where second-year player Myles Murphy should be right now if he wasn't […]
A plethora of injuries have hit the Cincinnati Bengals' defensive line in the past two months. The current defensive tackle grouping is nothing at all what the team pictured it would be back in July.
Just next to that mess on the edge is where second-year player Myles Murphy should be right now if he wasn't on the Reserve/Injured list until at least the conclusion of Week 4. Murphy suffered a knee sprain during the final week of training camp, an injury that takes four-to-six weeks to recover from.
The Bengals knew they'd need Murphy, but the situation without him has proven to be much more dire than anticipated.
Bengals need Myles Murphy back in the worst way
While Murphy, the defense's first edge off the bench, has been working his back to return after Week 4 at the earliest, the two starters ahead of him have been having completely opposite seasons.
Trey Hendrickson is having another Pro Bowl-caliber season already. He's tied for eighth in the NFL with three sacks, but his pass rush win rate is even higher on the league-wide rankings. Pro Football Focus has him fifth with a 36.7% win rate against true pass sets. ESPN has tied for first at 33%.
Sam Hubbard, on the other side, sports win rates of 6.7% and 5%, respectively. Both are near the bottom of the league.
The biggest weakness right now—on either side of the ball—for the Bengals is Hubbard. He's doing virtually nothing against one-on-one matchups as a pass rusher. Against the run, he's missed 18.8% of his tackle opportunities, which would be a career high if the season ended today.
There are very few players at Hubbard's position with worse production than him through three games, and the Bengals don't have Murphy, the 28th pick in last year's NFL Draft, available to take him off the field at the rate they should.
Murphy was in line for an expanded role this season after concluding his rookie year on a high note. He earned much praise throughout training camp this year partly because he was gaining more reps. Hubbard missed a few weeks with a knee injury, and Murphy went down with his own injury once Hubbard was good to return.
Now, according to ESPN's Ben Baby, Hubbard is on the mend with a Grade 3 hamstring injury and Murphy still has to miss one more game on I.R.
Hubbard started showing signs of decline last season as he was dealing with an ankle injury he eventually needed surgery to repair. At the very least, his body has been through quite a bit in the last 12 months and it could be accelerating his decline. We're talking about one of the core members of a once stout defense here.
And just when the Bengals need an alternative, their best one isn't available.
It hasn't helped that both Sheldon Rankins and B.J. Hill are also dealing with their own hamstring injuries at the moment, and Joseph Ossai has not looked promising in his own snaps on the edge.
The Bengals couldn't be more desperate for another pass rusher to step up aside from Hendrickson. They'll have to figure out how to survive with just Hubbard for at least one more week.
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