Duke Tobin Is Signaling The Future Of the Bengals’ Offense
Credit: Cara Owsley/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK
The Cincinnati Bengals’ de facto GM Duke Tobin is showing faith in his younger players, particularly 2023 fifth-and-sixth-round picks Chase Brown and Andrei Iosivas.
“The sky’s the limit,” Tobin said, regarding Brown, who looks like an explosive running back. All he needs to do is build on the successful foundation he started laying last season.
Brown’s reps increased significantly, especially in the passing game, as his rookie season went on. Once he came back from his hamstring injury, the Bengals used him as a complementary back to Joe Mixon, and Brown saw plenty of action on passing downs. His “Welcome to the Show” moment came in Week 14 against the Colts, when he attached jet packs to his cleats and took a check-down pass from Jake Browning to the house.
I don’t know about y’all but I’m stoked to see more of Chase Brown next year.
Dude can fly 💨💨
— Chris ✟ (@OpoyChase) July 23, 2024
Explosive plays can entirely change the momentum of a game, a dynamic the Bengals were often caught on the wrong side of last season. However, Brown’s quickness and splash-play ability can come into the spotlight and give the Bengals some firepower of their own, assuming he stays healthy. He’s already put his jaw-dropping speed on display in training camp.
Chase Brown showing off his explosiveness on day one of #Bengals training camp pic.twitter.com/6ICJfqiDLz
— James Rapien (@JamesRapien) July 24, 2024
It’s still unclear how the snaps at running back will be split up between Brown and newcomer Zack Moss. However, Tobin has stressed that Brown can force offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher’s hand and power his way into the go-to role. “He’s gonna have an opportunity to be the guy, or the second guy, or in tandem with Zack Moss,” Tobin said.
A player like Brown, who has shown big-play ability, will get plenty of work in an offense full of players who can break out a chunk play at any moment. Even his fellow teammates have taken notice of his improving ability as a receiver. “I’ve been watching Chase Brown run routes,” receiver Kwamie Lassiter II said. “I’m like, ‘Man, you kind of look like a receiver. For real.’”
The same can also be said for Iosivas, who emerged as a go-to target in the red zone for both Joe Burrow and Jake Browning last season. He ranked third on the team with four receiving touchdowns, all of which were in the red zone. Though he played the majority of his snaps as an outside receiver, Tobin is confident in “Yoshi’s” ability to be flexible with where he plays.
“The great thing about Andrei is he can go into any position on our team at wideout and show production,” Tobin said.
Brown’s and Iosivas’ offseason development can be credited to the fact that they both spent extensive time this offseason working with wide receiver coach Drew Lieberman. Both players have shown impeccable athletic ability, but being a gifted athlete isn’t the only thing that makes a player a good receiver. The technical aspects of being a receiver are the edge that separates great receivers from great athletes. Both players worked extensively with Lieberman on the technical part of their game.
“The main thing is the technique of it, just running full stride,” Brown said. “Route running is an art. You see a lot of guys, the top-tier guys make it look easy, but there is a lot that goes into it: full stride, break points, hip shifts. There’s a ton of things that break down a good route runner.”
“My curls, all my cuts are really, really fundamentally sound now,” Iosivas said. “If you learn to drop your hips consistently and do it over and over and over again — everyone says, ‘Drop your hips, drop your hips,’ but you need to work on it in the correct way and not shorten your stride when you get into the break. We are just hammering all those details.”
Brown and Iosivas can attribute their sporadic contributions to the fact that the entire offense was thrown for a loop with Joe Burrow’s injury-plagued 2023 season. Now that the roster is at full strength and they have an entire preseason to gain a rapport with Burrow, the second-year players will see their production increase as the Bengals head into 2024.
“I expect them to step forward because of what they’ve done in the past,” Tobin said. “They’ve shown that they can take on more. A lot of times young guys show they might not be ready to take on more. Both those guys have shown ‘hey, there’s a bigger role for me’ and both those guys are worthy of it.”
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