Suffering a serious enough rib injury that he missed most of the game against Cleveland and the entirety against Pittsburgh, Bengals running back Brian Leonard, grateful that the team has hit a Bye Week to continue rehabilitation, appears to be on track to make a Nov. 4 return against the Denver Broncos.
"I feel good," he said. "I was out there with Nick (Cosgray, Bengals director of rehabilitation) the other day running around. Didn’t feel too much pain at all. I feel like I’ll be good."
Despite all of that jazz, the whole "Bengals only have so many running backs" diatribe is a bit overdramatic. Leonard, mostly a special teams player with some "third down" responsibilities, has posted only six carries, which is less than Bernard Scott (8), who only played two games with an Injured Reserve designation since October 8.
Oh, and on those "third down" responsibilities, Leonard has touched the ball a whopping three times (two receptions, one run) while pass protecting 17 times on a billion failed third down conversions.
Through seven games, BenJarvus Green-Ellis has been 71.4 percent of the team's rushing offense.