The Bengals Can't Afford To Lose These Players At Final Cuts...

John Sheeran breaks down the biggest Bengals roster questions entering the preseason finale against the Philadelphia Eagles, including the futures of Jack Endries, Landon Robinson, Jalen Rivers and several players fighting to survive final cuts.

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Video Transcript

It's the final week of the preseason, which means it's now or never for many players on the Bengals roster.

I'm John Shearer of A to Z Sports Cincinnati.

This is A to Z Sports Cincinnati, covering your Cincinnati Bengals throughout the 2026 preseason.

And guys, before we begin, I just wanted to say thank you for your support of this channel over the last month.

It's been awesome recapping training camp practices, all the news and notes leading up to preseason games, going live after preseason games, and you guys have been tuning in and helping to grow this channel, so thank you so much for your support.

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We are ju- obviously just getting started with the season right around the corner.

And just for a preview, this week's live stream following the Bengals preseason finale against the Philadelphia Eagles is going to be centered around projecting, predicting I should say, the final, "final" 53-man roster.

It's always the initial 53-man roster, right?

Because there's always gonna be tweaks and adjustments probably made within the first day or so.

We could see maybe one or two players end up on injured reserve.

We need to find out if Shamar Stewart is gonna be ready to play for the season opener so he can be involved in the, the, in a decision there.

There could be some waiver claims that the Bengals make at one or two positions, and then there's gonna be practice squad stuff and all that stuff, right?

There's gonna be a lot of maneuvering with the initial 53-man roster, and it may not look the same as what it does when week one rolls around.

And the last preseason game traditionally is always that staging ground for some of these guys really fighting tooth and nail for a roster spot, and they're gonna get their chance basically the entire game as no starters are gonna play.

This time it's on the road against the Eagles, who are gonna be obviously playing their backups as well.

But there's not a lot of players that fit that description for the Bengals this year.

I don't really expect any undrafted free agent rookies to make the team this year, outside of obviously one who's not technically a rookie, but, you know, technically he is I guess.

But I think Dante Myers has already secured his roster spot, and there's nothing really more that he needs to do on Friday night.

But I can't say the same for a couple of other players who are a little bit more high-profile who were actually drafted this year, part of the Bengals draft class.

And I think the Bengals are gonna be thinking about these decisions specifically over the next six days before final cuts are due 6:00 PM on Sunday night.

So just a handful of practices remaining until the preseason finale, and only four days until the preseason ends, and these are the questions, debates, concerns, conundrums that I am thinking about the most when looking at the Bengals roster right now.

When it comes to the tight end position for Cincinnati, it's not necessarily about a lack of talent, it's more just about a numbers game because you're thinking about two quarterbacks at most are making the team, Joe Burrow and Joe Flacco, three running backs, Chase Brown, Majee Pierre, and Taj Brooks.

Probably six receivers.

I don't think they can keep seven and afford to keep as many players at other positions that they want, including Myers probably as that sixth guy.

Again, I would probably just put him in ink right now.

And then you would want at least nine offensive linemen, but maybe they can roll with just eight at the start of, you know, after 53, man cuts are s- supposed to be submitted.

Is there room for five tight ends looking at the rest of this roster math?

At this point right now, I'm not sure, but I do think that it does make sense.

This is something the Bengals have done in the past.

I remember in 2024 when they drafted Tanner McLaughlin in the sixth round and he hardly played in the preseason.

You know, they kept him on the team because they didn't want him to be subjected to waivers and potentially lose him and lose any chance that they get at developing him.

He only lasted two years, but it's a very similar situation this year with Jack Endries, who has played plenty in the preseason, and he's looked good in the preseason.

And even if he didn't play in the preseason, my evaluation of him would be very high.

I thought going back to the draft he was significantly better than just your average seventh round draft pick.

But if you keep Endries, you're probably keeping five tight ends because obviously Drew Sample and Mike Gesicki are not going anywhere as the de facto starters.

Eric Ebron Jr. Is fully healthy.

He's not gonna be starting on an injury list.

And I don't think Tanner Hudson is going anywhere.

They value him not only as the direct backup to Mike Gesicki and someone that they can rotate in in some of these red zone packages, but he can also play a lot of special teams.

He's even the backup long snapper if something were to happen to William Wagner.

Those four are locks.

I'm not comfortable, you know, cutting Hudson from my 53-man prediction.

You know, there's times in the off-season where I think maybe this is the year that they could move on from Hudson, but every single year in the preseason he shows up and he continues to prove his value and, and why they trust him so much in this offense.

So if they do want to keep five, I think they would have to keep Jack Endries because Cam Grandy, who has been, you know, this undrafted guy over the last two years and be a backup for Drew Sample as an inline blocker, he's much more likely to be able to be kept on the practice squad.

Whereas prospects like Endries who are just 22 years old who can both, you know, run after the catch, you know, get downfield as a receiver but can also put in some work as a blocker, and he has impressed me as an inline blocker this preseason.

I think there's just too much there to risk losing him to a team that is in desperate need of tight ends, right?

Endries is not going to play a lot when the season begins.

In fact, I expect him to be inactive if he does make the team.

But you want that guy as a long-term piece of the puzzle for this position group, especially with Drew Sample entering the last year of his contract.

Mike Gesicki is already over 30 years old.

He's got two years left on his deal.

And again, you don't really know entirely what you're going to get out of Eric Ebron for an entire season, and he's only got two years left on his rookie deal.

So Endries has four years left on his deal.

He's g- he's obviously got his entire career ahead of him, and he's got a well-rounded skill set that the Bengals should keep in the building.

I just don't know if they feel like they can keep five tight ends with some other positions that they may need to go a little bit heavier at Like I mentioned with the offensive line, the Bengals would prefer to keep nine here, and maybe in some scenarios they would like to keep 10, just because they're not really sure if they can count on some of their backups, and they want as many options as possible.

And one of those backup spots is swing tackle.

It's arguably the most important backup role in the offensive line room.

And right now, I have no confidence in any of the players in line for this job, right?

Here's how this went.

At the beginning of the training camp, it was Cody Ford's job to lose, and then he didn't look so hot at the beginning of camp and entering the first preseason game.

He also didn't look very good in that game as well.

Then he gets demoted to right guard, backup right guard, and Jalen Rivers gets moved out to backup left tackle.

And against the Bears, Jalen Rivers doesn't look so good, right?

He allows a pressure, he allows another hit, he gets a false start penalty.

So he j- is not asserting himself into this role after just moving back to the position that he was moved from originally this time last year.

And then, as of recording this video, Cody Ford gets released.

So the Bengals have now presented themselves the options of Jalen Rivers, Javon Foster, and Andrew Coker as the likely winners of this battle in terms of guys who are already on the roster.

Which tells me that the winner of the backup swing tackle for the Bengals in 2026 is probably not on the roster, or it's just Jalen Rivers and they're just gonna ride with him.

And at the very least, if they were to find someone on the waiver wire, maybe someone who got cut from a team with an embarrassment of riches along the offensive line, which isn't very frequent, right?

At, at the very least, that is an alternative option, and the Bengals could get something out of a player that we already know isn't, you know, bad.

But if they just ride out with Rivers and not really use this final preseason game as, like, another proving ground for him to solidify himself there, I don't think that's the best move.

And it's unfortunate, because it really looks like the backups for the interior spots are really promising right now, because Brian Parker and Connor Lue have looked really good, both in practice and in preseason.

Brian Parker specifically has really shined in both of these preseason games, and Lue just made his debut on Saturday against the Bears.

Jacob Bayer has also been really impressive in pass protection, and he's played both center and guard.

So all three of those guys, like, they should make the team.

I don't think Bayer will just because, again, like, they need a swing tackle, and there may not be enough room for another swing interior guy.

But Bayer is definitely someone I would look for in terms of making the practice squad.

But as for swing tackle, if there is any position that I would expect the Bengals to be interested in trading for around, you know, after the deadline for cuts, I would expect swing tackle to be that position.

And I think they could go heavy at another position on the team, might- maybe wide receiver might be that position in which they trade a receiver or another position for an offensive tackle.

Remember, they essentially did the reverse, the inverse if you will, when they traded Billy Price for B.J.

Hill.

The Bengals do enjoy player for player trades.

They feel like they can get value out of a player that, is either undervalued with their current team, and they trade away a player that they just do not need with the current construction of the roster, and that's a way for them to, you know, win the trade.

So maybe there is a position on the Bengals team right now that they go really heavy with the initial 53-man roster, and then they trade a player from that position, and then that number gets down to maybe a normal range, just to get another offensive lineman into the equation, someone who can actually back up both Orlando Brown Jr. And Amarius Mims for the foreseeable future.

Luckily for the Bengals, the position that they could go really heavy, really deep at in order to conduct a trade for an offensive lineman is on the other side of the ball, on the other side of the trenches, the defensive line.

Because right now I think 11 players should make the Bengals roster along the defensive line.

That's five defensive ends, five edge players, and six defensive tackles, because I would not cut Landon Robinson at all.

I don't care if he's just a seventh round pick who's probably gonna be inactive when the season starts.

Just like injuries, he is someone that you want on the team to keep developing, and someone that you do not want to subject to waivers, because in all likelihood, he is going to get claimed b- just because there's such a need for pass rushers in the NFL, and he is a really good one at defensive tackle.

Maybe I should hold my horses there.

He's a really promising pass rusher.

He's got six pressures and two sacks in about 67 pass rushing snaps this preseason.

He's played more than any defensive lineman for the Bengals this month, by design, right?

He needs the reps and they need to see what he can do, but he just seems like he's already in their plans, and they're just giving him that platform to keep developing.

But I do not think Robinson would round out the room at just five defensive tackles, because, I mean, I'm very confident that four are making the team in Dexter Lawrence, Johnson Allen, B.J.

Hill, and T.J. Slayton.

I think if there's any that could be traded out of that group, it's likely to be Slayton, but you would really want a quality backup for Dexter Lawrence for how much that you're counting on Lawrence to transform this team.

I don't think Slayton is going anywhere, and I think if he were going anywhere, he would've already been cut.

And then you still have Chris Jenkins and McKinnley Jackson to work out with, and I think Jenkins getting so many first team reps when B.J.

Hill was out in the early part of training camp and Jonathan Allen was taking these rest days, that speaks a lot about how they view Jenkins and how much of an opportunity that they wanted to give him.

And I think he's been solid this preseason.

So maybe they do end up trading him in order to get an offensive tackle.

That would make sense as someone who's still young and still has multiple years on their rookie contract.

That makes sense to me.

But if they were to go heavy at defensive tackle, I think both him and Robinson would be the guys to make it.

And I've been saying this since the beginning of the off-season program, right?

If you're going to run a lot of five-two looks, a lot of, you know, odd man fronts with three defensive tackles essentially on the field at the same time, you would ideally want a backup for each of those players.

You would have Slayton backup Lawrence, and you would have Robinson and Jenkins back up Allen and Hill respectively.

But again, it is ultimately, at the end of the day, a numbers game, and there may be a player that probably shouldn't get cut who does get cut just because you need depth at another position.

Those are my biggest questions with the Bengals roster right now.

I think, like I said at the beginning of the video, Dante Myers is pretty safe to make it at receiver, and then you're gonna have six there with Ja'Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, Andre Josiphach, Colby Young, and Mitch Tinsley.

If any of those guys are on the bubble, it's probably Tinsley, but I think they still like him a lot for what he did last year, and they're counting on him to provide good depth on the outside.

And then at cornerback, you know, we entered this training camp thinking that there was gonna be some sort of a battle in the slot, but Jalen Davis has never really made that a battle, and I think his backup's clearly gonna be just Cyr Taylor, who's just outperformed any of the other backup cornerbacks that the Bengals have had out there.

D.J.

Ivy is also very likely to make the team as one of the backups on the boundary.

But that's just how I see things, and there is plenty of other decisions for the Bengals to make.

So who do you think is going to make this team that we're not talking about?

Let me know down in the comments below

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