CINCINNATI – The Cincinnati Bengals haven’t selected a running back during the first two days of the draft since taking Joe Mixon in the second round in 2017.
And Mixon marks the only time they’ve done it in the last 11 drafts.
But there is another, more recent trend that is starting to change.
The first three running backs the Bengals drafted in the Zac Taylor era (2019-present) were ones who didn’t have substantial workloads in college, whether that be from a split role or injury-shortened seasons.
The idea was to find backs with less wear and tear.
Even Mixon fit that bill with just 300 collegiate carries at Oklahoma, where he split time with Samaje Perine.
But the selections of Chase Brown in the fifth round in 2023 and Tahj Boyd last week have marked a departure from that thought process.
Bengals director of college scouting Mike Potts touched on that during his post-draft appearance on The Growler podcast Tuesday night.
“Yeah, he did have a lot of tread on his tires, I guess you could say, in terms of the amount of carries that he had, but that produced a lot of production, a lot of yards, a lot of touchdowns and catches out of the backfield,” Potts said.
