Bengals player has a golden chance to rewrite his summer outlook

As things stand today, the Cincinnati Bengals' only realistic contributor at running back who's under contract after this season is 2025 sixth-round pick Tahj Brooks. That's right. Chase Brown is on the last year of his rookie deal, and Samaje Perine, who turns 31 in September, is due to hit the open market as well.

Brooks has a lot to prove entering his second year in Cincinnati to say the least. He was all but invisible as a rookie. Some of that stems from the fact that Perine was in his second stint with the team and had an innate familiarity with the offense. More of it was to do with how well Brown played, particularly after a slow start.

Many assume that the backfield hierarchy for the Bengals offense will still be a heavy dose of Brown with some Samaje spice sprinkled in. Are we all sleeping on Brooks ahead of training camp?

Can Tahj Brooks challenge Samaje Perine for RB2 job in training camp?

I mean, why not?

It's almost more useful to look back at Brooks' college career at Texas Tech than it is to draw any conclusions from what little we've seen from him at the NFL level thus far.

What stands out most about Brooks is the fact that he managed to pile up as many rushing yards as he did (3,046 across his last two years) at a healthy 5.3 yards per carry. What's interesting, too, about his athletic profile is how agile he is with a smaller but really thick build:

That's not to say Brooks dances around to look for daylight when the ball is in his hands. He is explosive with his lateral movements, and once he commits, he's coming downhill in a hurry. Check out some of his best highlights below.

In the Red Raiders' traditionally high-volume passing system, Brooks was an absolute bell cow and doubled as a rather frequent pass-catcher, with 84 receptions in his last three seasons.

You can see from his college reel that Brooks has some home run hitting ability. Perine is a dependable veteran, but a breakaway-speed burner he is not, especially this deep into his career.

The Bengals' rushing attack is as close as you'll find to the pro equivalent of Woody Hayes' Ohio State Buckeyes of many years ago. That whole "three yards and a cloud of dust" paradigm? It pretty much sums up Cincinnati's smashmouth approach to pounding the rock.

I swear. Zac Taylor seems to have some sort of disdain for wild imagination in play design. Any time the ball is taken out of Joe Burrow's hands, it's as if Taylor is just calling a run out of necessity. Burrow must hate handing off too, considering he's so great at what he does. And let's face it, he hasn't been on the field as often as he'd like in the last three seasons.

Too soon? Apologies. Love you Joe. So so so so so so so much like Nikki Obsession levels, bro.

But yeah. Cincinnati gets in the single backside car shotgun and runs either inside zone, split flow inside zone, power, or duo, with nary a wrinkle of any exotic variety to keep defenses honest.

And hey that's the prerogative of Taylor and his offensive coaching staff. I'm sure Burrow has a lot of input in that too. I get it. Lean into your strengths.

Anyway. Tangent about the Bengals' rather monotonous run game over.

Anything Brooks can show in 2026 to prove he's a capable backup to brown would be wonderful. If he emerges as an actual decent player? Well done. The Bengals may have a legitimate embarrassment of riches as far as weapons for Burrow to distribute the ball too.

Is it Tahj Brooks Breakout SZN? Highly unlikely. I prefer it from someone like Barrett Carter on defense instead.

It'll be interesting to monitor brooks progress through training camp. He could totally change the narrative, vie for that RB2 spot against Perine, and maybe be a bigger part of the Bengals success going forward than anyone realizes.

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