3 Bengals who need more playing time vs. Bills

Joseph Ossai/Myles Murphy

While the previous two players on this list made it mostly due to their disappointing starting counterparts, that is not the case for this last entry. Trey Hendrickson has been utterly dominant this year and is having one of the best seasons of his career, already matching his sack total in 2020 with 8.0 through just seven games, as well as a pair of forced fumbles.

So, why should Joseph Ossai and/or Myles Murphy see the field more over him? Well, there was a scary moment in Sunday's victory when Hendrickson went down with an apparent ankle injury and took a visit to the blue medical tent.

Thankfully, he'd eventually come back into the game and even had a big forced fumble at the end to erase any chances of a late-game comeback by the Niners. Even better, tests ran on said ankle over the last couple of days have had positive results and he should be playing this week against the Bills.

That being said, to minimize the risk of exacerbating the injury, the Bengals should limit his play. I understand this is a big game against one of the conference's best teams, but I'd rather have Hendrickson healthy for the whole season than potentially lose him for a few weeks by overusing him while his ankle isn't 100%.

Thankfully, the Bengals have solid depth with their edge rushers. While no one on the team could truly replicate the former Saint's production, there are a couple of guys who have shown they can step up when their names are called.

On the official Bengals depth chart, Joseph Ossai is directly behind Hendrickson at the right-end position and will possibly see the field more this game than he has in others so far this season. Ossai has shown flashes of brilliance at times and is a suitable candidate to fill in for Hendrickson a little bit more than he usually does. Besides him, you also have rookie Myles Murphy, who has been very underutilized for a first-round pick.

While I don't think they should take most of Hendrickson's snaps away, Anarumo should consider subbing him out and putting them in more frequently than he has done so far this season for just this one game, that way they don't run the risk of losing their most productive pass rusher for an extended period of time.