The 2 Biggest Bengals Training Camp Battles to Watch Ahead of the 2024 NFL Season

The 2023 campaign was a lost season for the Cincinnati Bengals. Joe Burrow suffered a leg injury during training camp last season, which impacted the quarterback’s play for the first few weeks of the year. His wrist injury in Week 11 also derailed Cincinnati’s playoff hopes.

He’s healthy now, and the Bengals remain one of the AFC’s top teams. But the team still has a few training camp battles to resolve before the 2024 NFL season begins. The most notable are at running back and tight end.

Who will be the Bengals’ RB1?

The Bengals made a big change at running back this offseason by trading away veteran Joe Mixon. The veteran was making a lot of money but wasn’t performing as well as his salary. He averaged just four yards per carry last year, which has become a trend for the Oklahoma product. Mixon has averaged over 4.2 yards per carry once in his career, and that was in 2018.

Cincinnati appears to be looking to have a split backfield this year to replace Mixon’s production. One of those backs will be Zack Moss. Moss didn’t live up to his third-round draft capital in the Buffalo Bills organization, but has found his feet with the Indianapolis Colts. He had big games replacing Jonathan Taylor last year, including a 165-yard, two-touchdown performance against the Tennessee Titans in Week 5.

He joins Chase Brown in the Bengals’ backfield. Brown was a fifth-round pick by the team in last year’s draft. He didn’t play much as a rookie. In fact, he only had two carries for six yards to his name through Week 13 of the 2023 season. But from there, he earned a role and showed big-play ability.

Those two seem like an ideal duo for Cincinnati. The question now is how long each of them will play.

Moss is the more consistent runner of the two and the one who is more capable of handling a heavier workload on a weekly basis. Brown does it efficiently. How this Bengals backfield for the 2024 season is divided will be determined by this training camp battle.

Bengals need to find tight end

Cincinnati receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins do most of the heavy lifting in their passing attack. Even though they selected Jermaine Burton in the 2024 NFL Draft and Charlie Jones and Andrei Iosivas last year, the Bengals could afford to have a tight end to help replace Tyler Boyd.

They’ve brought in a few options to get there. They tried Hayden Hurst in 2022, and he was solid for them, but wasn’t really anything special either. Cincinnati also signed Irv Smith Jr. last year, but he was a dud. He caught just 18 passes for 115 yards and one touchdown in 12 games. That’s not going to be enough.

The Bengals have gotten solid production from Tanner Hudson at the position midway through the 2023 season. Hudson caught 39 of 50 targets for 352 yards and a touchdown in 12 games for Cincinnati last year. He’ll have to compete with Mike Gesicki in training camp to become the Bengals’ primary tight end in 2024.

Gesicki’s career got off to a flying start, but it has hit a snag over the last two years. He had back-to-back seasons of at least 703 receiving yards in 2020 and 2021, but hasn’t maintained that level of production. Gesicki has 606 yards over the next two years.

Cincinnati also selected former Michigan and Iowa tight end Erick All Jr., but he’s on the PUP list recovering from a torn ACL. He has real skills that could make him their tight end of the future. But the Bengals really need Gesicki or Hudson to shine in this training camp battle to give them another reliable weapon for the 2024 season. What happens at that position in Cincinnati will be worth watching.