Bengals to keep Brandon Thompson on PUP list, ending his season

The Bengals have decided to keep defensive tackle Brandon Thompson on the Reserve/Physically Unable to Perform list, effectively ending his season.

Today was the deadline for the Bengals to make a decision on Thompson, after allowing him to return to practice, from the PUP list, three weeks ago.

Thompson tore his ACL in Week 17 of the 2015 NFL season. The Bengals still opted to re-sign him during the spring, offering him a 1-year, $840,000 deal after he hit free agency. But even at that time, they knew he would more than likely start the year on the PUP list and might never play a down in 2016.

That will now be the case and Thompson will enter the 2017 offseason, once again, becoming a free agent.

This is unfortunate news for Thompson, but the Bengals must not feel he’s ready to play. It’s not easy for a 310 pound man to recover from a torn ACL, which we saw with Geno Atkins in the 2014 season. Atkins was a shell of himself that year upon returning from a torn ACL suffered in October of the prior season.

Thompson was a third round draft selection by the Bengals in the 2012 NFL Draft. Since joining the team, he has played in 39 games, generating 53 tackles, 3.0 sacks and 1 pass defended.

It’s a shame to see Thompson’s season end before it ever began. The Bengals will once again need to decide this offseason if they’d like to return Thompson to the team for the 2017 season.