The Cincinnati Bengals sound undecided on the competition behind running back Joe Mixon, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
They also sound encouraged by Trayveon Williams.
Williams, the projected main rotational back behind Mixon in the wake of Samaje Perine’s free-agency departure, lost a chunk of training camp due to an ankle sprain.
But even now, Bengals head coach Zac Taylor remains hopeful that the flashes they’ve seen from Williams will translate to something more in 2023.
“He was a guy that was making really great progress in a lot of areas leading up to (the injury),” Taylor said, according to Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com. “We want to see what he is all about. He still gets an opportunity to do that. I’m not going to say it’s nailed down and this is the way it is going to be all season once we make the Game 1 decision. I think it needs to be a fluid situation for us where these guys know there is potential to continue to improve, to get more opportunity.”
That line of thought might go a long way toward explaining why the team didn’t do much at the position after Perine left, outside of adding fifth-rounder Chase Brown.
And while Brown looked as expected this summer and Chris Evans appeared to take a developmental step, it sure feels like Williams heads into the season as the main rotational guy, health-provided.
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