5 Bengals who upped their stock in preseason opener vs Packers
- Tycen Anderson is an obvious standout
- Jordan Battle showed major potential
- Andrei Iosivas led the team in receiving yards
- The punter battle doesn't feel like a battle
- Jay Tufele will make the DL depth competition interesting
Jay Tufele
When D.J. Reader was down with an injury for most of the first half of the 2022 season, we saw several depth players rotated in to try and fill his role. While Reader's production and ability against the run are hard to match, we saw these depth pieces make a valiant effort to try and do so. Tufele in particular stood out during that stretch, with 16 tackles and two TFLs in seven games.
The Packers run game was torching the Bengals' defense all night, but on the few plays where their running backs were unable to get any production whatsoever, it was more often than not because of Tufele stepping up and stuffing them in the backfield or at the line of scrimmage.
Tufele finished the night with five total tackles, tied for the most on the team alongside Allan George. While you never want to see anyone go down with an injury, it's inevitable at the end of the day, and knowing you have solid depth pieces like Tufele makes fans feel just a little more comfortable when a star player goes down.
There are a few honorable mentions that were a play or two short of making the list. Both running backs Chase Brown and Chris Evans had a big play but didn't do much outside of those singular instances.
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Tight end Tanner Hudson was looking like a solid safety valve, though he ended up getting injured and when that happens it's hard for your stock to rise. DJ Turner and DJ Ivey made some nice tackles in open space, and finally, Dax Hill flashed some incredible speed on this pass breakup.