Bengals Seek To Navigate Deep Roster As Mandatory Minicamp Opens

A thumbnail look at the Bengals roster as the three-day mandatory minicamp opens Tuesday and runs through Thursday.

(Years of NFL experience in parenthesis:)

Burrow has been sifting as his wrist rebounds and Browning has been engineering when Seamless Joe gets a break.

Woodside and Lombardi are probably trying to hammer out a practice squad spot. Woodside, one of the last three draft picks of the pre-Zac Taylor era, returns with gobs of practice snaps since 2018. He’s played in seven games for two teams while completing four of seven passes and has the clear edge on experience. But let the preseason games begin.

Tee Higgins (5), Trenton Irwin (5), Ja’Marr Chase (4), Andrei Iosivas (2), Charlie Jones (2), Kendric Pryor (2), Shed Jackson (1), Kwamie Lassiter II (1), Cole Burgess (R), Jermaine Burton (R), Tre Mosley (R)

Higgins, their franchise player, doesn’t figure to be here this week. Chase said he plans to be. The question isn’t who’s the next four, but how much are they going to play and how much are they going to use guys like Jones, Irwin, and Burton in the slot. Iosivas flashed he can be more than a No. 4. Can the Div. III great story Burgess crack the practice squad?

Here’s a recurring theme at pretty much every spot but maybe linebacker, where they have quite young potential backups. It appears their depth is elite enough that they could have at least one extra quality roster player at each spot. Other than punter, the best shot an undrafted rookie has at making the 53 is probably linebacker.

The draft picks All (ACL) and McLachlan (soft tissue) won’t work this week, but McLachlan figures to be cleared for training camp and All could be ticketed to start the season on the physically unable to perform list (PUP). They remain bully on those guys and have three solid vets in front of them.

This is where you start getting into numbers games with…