Bengals are in a tough spot at the cornerback position entering Week 9

After not getting bit by the injury bug much in the 2021 season, the Cincinnati Bengals aren't having the same luck in 2022. In fact, the injury bug has really eaten them alive when it comes to the cornerback spot.

Heading into their Week 9 game against the 2-6 Carolina Panthers, the 4-4 Bengals will be without two of their three starting cornerbacks, as Chidobe Awuzie is out for the season after tearing his ACL and Mike Hilton will miss this game with a finger injury.

This means that the Bengals will be rolling into their Week 9 matchup with Eli Apple, Jalen Davis, and Cam Taylor-Britt as their starter corners. Yeah, that's not ideal.

Bengals in a bind at cornerback

As Paul Dehner Jr. noted in the tweet above, Dax Hill will come off the bench to help but he definitely had his "Welcome to the NFL" moment on Monday when Jacoby Brissett targeted him and won big.

The good news for Cincinnati, however, is that the Panthers aren't a good football team. I will say that P.J. Walker hasn't been bad at them at the quarterback spot (he's been better than Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold, but is that really saying much?) and he should be able to make some plays against this banged up Bengals secondary.

Zac Taylor believes in this group, though. He mentioned during his Friday press conference that he considers Jalen Davis to be one of top 32 nickels in the NFL. Davis was pretty impressive in coverage last year, earning a 71.7 PFF grade in that department. His run defense needs work but it's better for him to be making plays in coverage if we had to pick between the two.

The Bengals are still big-time favorites in this one and that's because when push comes to shove, Joe Burrow should be able to make enough plays to get this team the win. Ja'Marr Chase still won't be back but hopefully the offense is able to shake off whatever the hell Monday's game was and score some points against a lesser opponent.