Bengals: Don’t Forget About Marvin Jones
Sep 20, 2015; Cincinnati, OH, USA; San Diego Chargers cornerback Brandon Flowers (24) attempts to tackle Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Marvin Jones (82) in the first half at Paul Brown Stadium. The Bengals won 24-19. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports
Marvin Jones is back people! He is finally healthy and ready to go as we have clearly seen in the last two games. The Bengals beat the Ravens in a very exciting shoot out last weekend. This came after the Bengals beat San Diego 24-19 and in the week prior demolishing the Raiders 33-13. There has been a lot of hype surrounding the Bengals offense and rightfully so. Tyler Eifert is breaking out, Giovani Bernard is playing lights out, Andy Dalton is playing very well, even AJ Green is playing like the elite player he is. All cylinders are firing in the Bengals offense, but don’t forget about Marvin Jones.
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Marvin Jones burst onto the scene in 2013 when he proved to be able to complement AJ Green. In Jones’ sophomore season, he caught 10 touchdowns for 712 yards. This marked the first time since T.J. Houshmandzadeh and Chad Johnson, that two Bengals’ wideouts caught double digit touchdowns in the same season. Now this season, Jones and Tyler Eifert have combine for five of Andy Dalton’s eight touchdown passes. While Eifert was a non-factor in Baltimore, Jones is proving why Who Dey Nation should not be forgetting about him.
Cincinnati Bengals and Andy Dalton missed Jones last season. Jones suffered a foot injury that sidelined him for the entire season. He wasn’t able to contribute at all, but the touchdown machine set his sights on the 2015 season. With Tyler Eifert causing so much havoc in the first two weeks and AJ Green being well, AJ Green, Marvin Jones could quietly become a candidate for comeback player of the year.
While AJ Green demands double coverage and Tyler Eifert deserves an extra look as well, Marvin Jones will be left with one on one coverage just about every time. If you need an example on what that means, just watch Brandon Flowers try to cover Jones in week two. Jones beat Flowers on his 45 yard touchdown reception by at least 2-3 yards.
He has proven to be a very good complementary wide out, who can beat most corners. By the way, Brandon Flowers is no scrub, he may not be an elite corner anymore, but he is better than the average. After two games into the season, Jones had 4 receptions for 67 yards and 1 touchdown very pedestrian numbers. However, last weeks progress shows Jones is getting comfortable again. While A.J. torched the Ravens, Jones was a bit of a silent assassin. Jones put up 94 yards and a touchdown on 5 receptions.
Jones’ numbers are increasing every week and I expect these numbers to keep rising. As we at Stripe Hype have pointed out in our weekly MVP piece, Tyler Eifert, Giovani Bernard and AJ Green have been performing at high levels. This means that other teams will game plan to stop these big three. Therefore, leaving Marvin Jones to be covered by a no. 2 corner.
This weekend, the Bengals face the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs are a good team with a good defense. They have their number one corner returning from suspension in Sean Smith, who will most likely cover AJ Green. On the other side of the defense, they have rookie sensation Marcus Peters.
Peters will be the best competition Jones’ will have face so far this season. Although I will give the upper hand to the veteran. Last week, the Chiefs let up 5 touchdowns to Aaron Rodgers and the Packer receivers. To point out the Packers wide outs other than Randall Cobb are not as good as the Bengals receiving core.
By no means is Andy Dalton, Aaron Rodgers, but given the productivity of Dalton as of late, Jones, Green, and the rest of the Bengals players are in for another big day.