The Cincinnati Bengals could without a key offensive contributor for a chunk of time, as running back Zack Moss is expected to be sidelined for the foreseeable future with a neck injury. There's a chance that he could even be added to the team's injured reserve list in the near future.
Zack Moss to be sidelined with a neck injury
Moss missed his first game of the season in Week 9 against the Las Vegas Raiders, but unfortunately it sounds like that won't be his last missed game. The Bengals were able to pull out a 41-24 victory in that game without him, but his absence will certainly be felt moving forward.
On the season, he has 74 carries for 242 yards and two touchdowns for Cincinnati. He also has 23 receptions for 187 yards and another touchdown. Even though Chase Brown has been getting the bulk of the carries for the Bengals in recent weeks, Moss has carved out a nice role as a third-down back and a receiving threat out of the backfield. His absence will leave Brown as the only experienced runner in Cincinnati's backfield.
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It will be interesting to see if Moss' absence impacts Cincinnati's approach to the upcoming trade deadline. A case could be made that the team needed to add a running back prior to Moss' injury, and if he's going to miss a few weeks, it could be argued that the team should really make adding another back a priority before the 4:00 p.m. ET trade deadline on Nov. 5.
Brown has shown that he can serve as the team's lead back, but having another reliable rusher could be beneficial for the Bengals, who have a tough stretch of games coming up. Cincinnati's next three games are against the Baltimore Ravens, Los Angeles Chargers and Pittsburgh Steelers.
All three of those teams appear to be destined for a playoff berth, and Cincinnati's own playoff fortunes will likely be decided during that three-game span. If they can win at least two of them, then they'll give themselves a real chance to qualify for postseason play. They simply can't afford to go 1-2, or 0-3, during that stretch though. If they do, they can kiss their playoff hopes goodbye.
Deadline inactivity has become a tradition of sorts for Cincinnati, but perhaps they'll break with tradition to bolster their backfield this year following the injury to Moss.