1. Darius Phillips
Fortunately, Darius Phillips isn’t in his return specialist role anymore (mostly due to injury but also because of his struggles) but this is more of a hope that things stay that way. When I asked the question on the Stripe Hype Twitter account of who fans wanted to see demoted on the roster, Phillips was the most popular answer, and for good reason.
In the overtime loss to the 49ers, Phillips muffed two punts and the Niners recovered both of them. Not only did that take two possessions away from Cincinnati’s offense but it led to 10 total 49er points. The Bengals lost that game by three points in overtime so had those 10 points not been gifted to San Francisco, Cincy likely finds a way to win that game pretty comfortably.
Fans had seen enough of Phillips during that game and Trent Taylor has been in charge of returning punts ever since. He’s done well there and hopefully, assuming Taylor stays healthy, he can continue to stay in that role.
Darius Phillips is the player fans never want to see return to their role again and while he’s injured right now, the Bengals have seen how well Taylor has done in his place. There should be no reason for Phillips to get his job back when he’s healthy again.
What other Bengals players do you believe should be demoted, if there are any that I missed?