The Bengals Finally Have Their Swing Tackle Competition...
John Sheeran breaks down Javon Foster, Jalen Rivers, Myles Hinton and Blake Freeland, including their strengths, weaknesses and who has the best chance to earn the backup tackle job heading into the 2026 season.
Video Transcript
The Cincinnati Bengals all of a sudden have plenty of offensive tackles on their team, both on the active roster and on the practice squad.
But which one of them is gonna be the backup swing tackle for the season?
I'm John Scheuren of A to Z Sports Cincinnati.
This is A to Z Sports Cincinnati, covering your Cincinnati Bengals, leading up to week one of the regular season.
We now know the entire 16 player practice squad for the Bengals, or at least the first iteration of the 16 player practice squad leading up to week one, as the Bengals officially announced Tuesday afternoon the coming back of Josh Johnson, that quarterback, and Tanner Hudson, a tight end, to the practice squad, along with three new players in defensive end Garman Randolph, offensive tackle Blake Freeland, and cornerback Triquez Bridges.
The commonality with all three of those new players is that they're really good athletes for their size.
Bridges is 6'2", 200 pounds, and runs a sub 4.5 40 yard dash.
Randolph is a 6'5", 6'6", 270 pound defensive end with really good get off.
He's about the same body size as Shamar Stewart.
It makes sense why the Bengals would want another defensive end of that physical profile, and also it is nice to have a long and lanky physical cornerback at that position with the, with the players the Bengals have on their roster.
But the guy who intrigues me the most is the guy who's been in the league longer than any of those guys, and it was actually a fourth round pick, and that is Blake Freeland, who now joins an offensive tackle group that is pretty deep but is full of unknowns.
And in my opinion, Freeland can come in and immediately shake up this backup swing tackle competition that has no end currently in sight.
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So now that the Bengals have Miles Hinton as a waiver claim, they have Blake Freeland now on the practice squad, joining the likes of Javon Foster, and technically still Jalen Rivers, I wanted to kinda reset what we can look for now that the season is here, how these guys are gonna be competing, and basically just essentially look over all these guys and the pros and cons of who they are as prospects, as players, what they bring to the table, and who I think has the best chance of eventually taking over this role full-time.
I wanna start with Javon Foster, because I feel like if the Bengals had to play tomorrow, Javon Foster would be the first backup offensive tackle off of the bench.
I think right now he's penciled in for that role because he just looked the best out of all other options during the preseason.
He ended up playing left tackle all of last week in the preseason during practice, and then in the game as well.
It wasn't spectacular, and I feel like that's part of why, like, this job is still very much up for grabs.
And in general, like, I don't think you have a lot of confidence in Javon Foster as your swing tackle.
But the pros of him is that he's been in the scheme for now a year.
He was a practice squad addition for the Bengals this time last year.
So he spent a year in the building learning the scheme and getting coaching from offensive line coach Scott Peters.
So he does have somewhat of a head start on the competition, being in the system for as long as anyone who is now in this battle, and he does come in with good size and power.
I think that he can stand up to power rushers pretty well compared to others.
He's got pretty good length with about 34 and a half inch arms, 6'5", 320 pounds, somewhere in that range.
So good size, good frame, and good power for the position.
But the counter to that is that he's not the best athlete out there, and I feel like the times that he does get exposed is truly against speed rushers who have bend around the edge, who are explosive around the edge, and his foot speed and his kickslide speed just not exactly there.
It's just not what you want from an offensive tackle who has to play insignificant snaps at a moment's notice.
And again, because he just wasn't a convincing winner of this battle in the preseason, you don't have the m- most confidence in him entering the regular season.
And by the way, he's never played a regular season snap as well.
He was a fourth round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.
He was first with the Jacksonville Jaguars for the first year and a half of his career, but he's only ever played in the preseason, so that's something to note about.
Do you trust this guy to come in in September and October and November in an environment that he's never been in before, despite having three years of league experience?
Jalen Rivers was Foster's main competition during the end of the preseason.
I feel like he'd still write to include him here, even though he's probably more viewed as a guard now, but he has played tackle in a pinch for the Bengals in the preseason and practice, and I think you can still add him to this competition just as another option.
Again, like Foster, he has a year in the scheme.
He was a draft pick last year by the Bengals, so there is incentive to make sure that he works out and becomes a decent role player for this team.
I don't think they want him to be this inactive guy on the active roster, but who ends up not dressing during game days.
I think they want to see more out of that to get a good return on their initial investment, even as just a fifth round pick.
And unlike Foster and the guy that we'll get to in a second, Rivers has played in the regular season.
He's played regular season games for the Bengals.
He was a starter for a decent portion of time last year at right guard.
And there was a time where they thought he could play tackle, but he ended up moving inside to guard, and he played significant snaps for them.
So I think there may be some Form of trust or some level of trust in him handling himself in an in-game situation compared to Foster, who has never been in that situation before.
But very much like Foster, Rivers is a very similar body type, in which, yeah, like power doesn't always get to him, but his foot speed and his general movement ability is not there, and it definitely gets him exposed more times than not when he's on the edge, protecting a tackle.
Again, he was also very unconvincing in the preseason.
I think he had a worse preseason compared to Javon Foster, even if it was rather marginal in their differences.
And I just think at this point, we've seen him in two off-seasons and two, and two training camps.
He's just slightly better at guard compared to tackle.
I think there's just enough data points and film to show that he's just not going to be a long-term answer on the outside.
But then we get to the new guys, and the first one who came onto the team on Monday via waiver claim is Myles Hinton.
Now, Myles Hinton was a sixth-round draft pick by the Eagles last year.
He's one of four sixth-round picks, actually.
He spent all of last season on injured reserve with a back injury, so that's one of the cons against him.
He is coming off of a season-ending injury, and he did play in the entirety of the preseason, this past preseason for the Eagles, but that is something to note.
It is part of his profile and his injury history, and something that they need to acknowledge.
But unlike both Foster and Rivers, Hinton is not only much larger than those guys, at 6'6", 340 pounds, he's a much better athlete compared to those guys.
This guy was a former five-star recruit who originally play, played at Stanford but then transferred to Michigan, a school that consistently produces NFL caliber offensive lineman, and he started, you know, big time games for them, mainly at left tackle, but he has also played both left and right tackle during his football career.
I believe with the Eagles he's only played left tackle, but he does have experience of taking pass sets from the other side.
And during his rookie season with the Eagles, he was under offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland, who for my money, was the best offensive line coach in the NFL before he ended up leaving the team, after this past season.
So I think being at both Michigan and the Eagles with Stoutland coaching there for just a year, he has received really good coaching.
But, but I think where you get to the worries with Hinton is not only has he never played in the regular season, I also think that his main issue is involved with the technical side of the game, the hand usage part, and sometimes he misses his landmarks.
And while he's able to get out and create some space and mirror guys in pass protection, it doesn't always work out when he has to land his punches.
I think there's definitely highs when you look at his tape, and that's why the Bengals were so intrigued to place a waiver claim for him and release Hunter Hudson in order to do it, but I think they are banking on traits here, and they need to make sure that he's technically sound before they put him out there for a real game.
And that's where offensive line coach Scott Peters is going to come in really handy.
If he gets his hands on him and he's able to implement the strike system and figure out how to, you know, use his hands in pass protection, that's going to go a long way, and it's what could give him an upper hand in this competition.
And finally, we get to Blake Freeland, who was signed to the Bengals practice squad yesterday and is now their only offensive lineman on the practice squad as of this recording, and I expect that to be the case leading up to week one.
But Blake Freeland, a lot like Myles Hinton, is another great athlete.
He's not exactly the most dense player at 6'8", 305, 310 pounds, so he is a bit slight in frame, but great movement ability.
That was the case when he came out of BYU back in 2023.
He was a fourth-round pick in that year's draft, and he honestly could have went a little bit earlier.
I remember really enjoying his tape, specifically as a run blocker.
He can definitely get to the second level.
And he has also played both left and right tackle, and that was the case for his first two years with the Indianapolis Colts.
In his first year, he was a rookie starter in which he started two games, his first two games at left tackle, and then plenty of other games at right tackle.
So he also has experience at both left and right tackle.
But during that rookie season, he was definitely overwhelmed.
He was not very good and very clean in pass protection, and that's the last time really that he's seen extended playing time during the regular season.
He was injured all of last year, I believe with some sort of a leg injury, and he was on IR for the entirety of the season.
And this year, in his fourth preseason, he was, you know, rather so-so.
He had some good moments, I think particularly in their first game, the Colts's first game against the New England Patriots, but he had some pressures here and there.
He played a lot in the preseason, so he was definitely exposed plenty, to other players and whatnot.
But, you know, it was not the most promising, collection of tape, and that's, I think, part of why he ended up, getting waived by the Colts.
But considering his plus athleticism, which is on par with Myles Hinton, the fact that he's more experienced than Myles Hinton and really any other player that we've talked about, like you've seen him in action in the regular season.
He is now relishing the chance to kind of start fresh in a new environment, and now is getting even better coaching from Scott Peters.
I think there is definite promise with Blake Freeland compared to most of their other options right now.
The fact that you have this plus athlete who has been there and done that, who's played both sides.
Yes, there's some shakiness in his tape, going back to his rookie season, but I think that in general, the experience and the upside here, the fact that he's only 25 years old, despite having played more than any of these other guys, there is a lot of promise here, and it's a really good sign that the Bengals identified him, then signed him to the practice squad.
So who is ultimately gonna win this battle?
Your guess is as good as mine.
All we know right now is that Zac Taylor is not gonna make any definitive decision until he sees these guys in extended time.
He told reporters on Tuesday that this could go on the entire season if he so desires.
But it'll definitely be interesting to see Freeland get some reps in practice against Hinton, and obviously see if Rivers does get another chance at tackle or if he's just going to slide inside to guard.
I think it's gonna be also interesting when Bryan Parker comes back off of IR, which he is eligible to come back after the first four weeks, if one of these guys ends up not being on the team anymore, because I don't think they're gonna be able to carry 11 offensive linemen on the active roster once Parker returns.
I think, in my estimation, though, both Freeland and Hinton have just as good of chances to win this battle as Foster does, despite Foster having obviously a head start on all these guys in- including Rivers, right?
The fact that Foster looked relatively the best in a Bengals uniform at, pack of offensive tackle during the preseason is why he's probably in line to have this role in week one.
Hopefully, we never see any of these guys actually play significant snaps during the regular season, but we have seen in years past how important it is to have a quality backup offensive tackle, and that's why the Bengals are now giving themselves four options to choose from this se- Ultimately, by the middle of the season, I wouldn't be surprised if either Freeland or Hinton was the guy.
I wouldn't also be surprised if neither of those guys were on the team or the practice squad by that time.
We'll see how it unfolds.
But that's just my take.
Who do you think should be the Bengals swing tackle week one and for the rest of the season?
Let me know down in the comments below.
