Cincinnati Bengals: 2016 Expectations for Giovani Bernard
By Tim Daniel
Now that the 2016 NFL Schedule has been released, it’s time to start planning and prepping for the 2016 NFL season!
As we get closer to the NFL draft, the plans for this year’s Bengals team really start to come together and it will be full steam ahead.
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This is a team that even with their losses to free agency, is pretty loaded with talent. We can name off a huge roster from the likes of A.J. Green, Tyler Eifert, Andy Dalton, Brandon LaFell, and Jeremy Hill. Something tells me the other Bengals running back will be this season’s X-factor to keep the offense ruling this year, and that’s a title we all know Giovani Bernard will be more than glad to carry.
When you look back at the 2015 season, you will see that Bernard and Hill were very even on yards rushing, but that was really about it as far as how close these two played last year. Yes they are a great 1-2 punch to have in the backfield and Jeremy Hill may have been the “starter”, but when the game was on the line, Bernard was the man in the backfield for this team.
Giovani finished the season with 730 yards rushing, an average of 4.7 yards/carry, but only two touchdowns. Bernard also added 49 catches to his season for 472 yards, including a 128 yard receiving performance on Sunday Night Football against the Arizona Cardinals. On a team with so many weapons, Bernard could possibly be the most dynamic of the group with his ability to do so much out of the backfield and his ability to hold onto the football compared to his running mate Jeremy Hill.
We all know that for this team to succeed, Hill and Bernard have to play big parts with the losses in free agency, but these guys are definitely more than ready to do just that.