Tyler Eifert out multiple weeks due to back injury

The Cincinnati Bengals will be without Tyler Eifert for several more games.

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Eifert’s back injury is serious enough to keep him out for multiple weeks, though it’s not serious enough for surgery just yet.

That means Eifert will miss Week 4 against the Cleveland Browns and probably Week 5 against the Buffalo Bills. This also explains why Eifert is off to such a slow start, though a lot of that has to do with the struggles of the offensive line, Andy Dalton and former offensive coordinator Ken Zampese.

Even so, Eifert has performed well in bad situations before, so it’s concerning to see he has just four catches for 46 yards in the first two games before missing Week 3.

Last week, head coach Marvin Lewis also told SiriusXM that Eifert’s status going forward was “up in the air.” Back injuries can be a tricky thing to deal with, so it’s not too surprising to see the Bengals using caution with this.

It’s still unclear how serious the knee injury is that Eifert was also dealing with, though it’s thought to be the lesser of the two injuries. Eifert was reportedly dealing with knee tendinitis in the preseason, which led to him being held out of the third and fourth preseason games (though, most starters sat out of the final preseason game).

Neither injury was thought to be serious, but between Eifert’s injury history and the Bengals being very mum on injured players, there’s no telling how bad Eifert’s issue is or how much time he could miss.