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The Cincinnati Bengals have announced their gameday inactives for Week 8 vs Washington.
The Bengals’ inactive players for Week 8 are:
- Tight end C.J. Uzomah
- Cornerback Chykie Brown
- Cornerback KeiVarae Russell
- Offensive lineman Christian Westerman
- Wide receiver Cody Core
- Quarterback Jeff Driskel
- Defensive lineman DeShawn Williams
The biggest surprise here is that tight end C.J. Uzomah is inactive for the first time this season. This is likely because tight end Tyler Eifert is active today for the second week in a row and is expected to see a bigger workload, which could be a major boost to the Bengals’ offense. While we should not expect Eifert to be 100 percent quite yet, we should expect him to be much closer to it after getting only 15 snaps last week. Having Uzomah inactive is also a good sign that Eifert will be close to full capacity this week as Uzomah saw the most tight end snaps when Eifert was out. Uzomah was the most used among tight end among he and Kroft in Weeks 1-6 while Eifert was inactive and dealing with an ankle and then back injury. In Week 7 once Eifert returned on a limited basis, that remained true.
With the Bengals being healthy throughout the 53-man roster coming into this game, all seven inactives are health scratches. No one was even listed on the final injury report as all 53 guys are healthy enough to play in this game.
Still, it is surprising to see that Uzomah is a player who the Bengals decided to make inactive today as he’s been fairly productive thus far in 2016.
For Washington, their inactives are:
- Running back Matt Jones
- Quarterback Nate Sudfeld
- Wide receiver Rashad Ross
- Cornerback Dashaun Phillips
- Offensive tackle Vinston Painter
- Guard Arie Kouandjio
- Defensive end Matt Ioannidis
On defense, All-Pro cornerback Josh Norman is active. Norman suffered a concussion in the third quarter during Washington’s Week 7 loss to Detroit. He remained on the turf for a significant amount of time before slowly walking toward the locker room before going through the NFL concussion protocol over the last week.
On offense, the big news is Pro Bowl tight end Jordan Reed is active after missing the last two weeks with a concussion. In five games this season, Reed leads all Washington receivers with 33 grabs for 316 yards and two scores. He’s easily one of the game’s best tight ends and someone who is critical to his team’s success.