Bengals franchise records waiting to be broken in 2018

The Bengals will be opening training camp relatively soon, but that doesn’t mean we can’t start projecting records the Bengals could break next season. It is kind of funny to think how these Bengals are on the door steps of owning history for this franchise.

Going to be broken in 2018

Kevin Huber needs 50 punts and 698 yards to pass Lee Johnson in punts and punt yards

Johnson currently holds the record for a Bengals punter with 746 punts and 32,196 punt yards. What is interesting is this isn’t some longevity record. Johnson played for the Bengals for 11 years playing in 176 games.

Huber to this point has only played 142 games. He will easily eclipse these stats in 2018 as he has never punted less than 50 times in a season, and his career low for a full 16-game season is 2,992 yards.

Huber is coming off a career year where he punted the ball 88 times for 4,101 yard (3,631 net yards). It was a great season for Huber, but one of the worst offensive seasons the Bengals had ever seen.

A.J. Green needs 10 touchdown receptions to pass Chad Johnson in receiving touchdowns

Johnson currently hold the record with 66 receiving touchdowns. He accomplished that feat in only 151 games with the Bengals. If Green manages to reach 10 touchdowns this season he will have accomplished that in a much shorter amount of time.

Green has only played in 102 games as a Bengal, so even if it takes him 16 games to catch 10 touchdowns he will still have a chance to put a nice cushion between Johnson and himself on the list.

Green will also be showing up on this list later for touchdowns, but if he does catch 10 touchdowns this season he will also only have to catch 33 more touchdowns to reach 100 in his career. He currently needs 43 more

Within shouting distance

Andy Dalton needs 31 touchdown passes to replace Ken Anderson in career touchdown passes

It isn’t far fetched that the Bengals could see Dalton become their leader in passing touchdowns next season. It isn’t a sure thing by any means. He has only thrown for over 30 touchdowns once in his career, but a Bill Lazor kick in production could get him to that milestone again.

Anderson built this record in 192 games, but it has only taken Dalton 109 to get on his doorstep. Not taking anything away from Dalton, but there is definitely a difference in how their eras have played defense that have led to this. Still, records were made to be broken.

Also, Dalton will pass Boomer Esiason along the way once he has thrown 21 touchdowns in 2018.

Long shots

Green needs 14 touchdowns to pass running back Pete Johnson in all-time touchdowns

I would’ve liked to put this in as within range, but Green has never caught 14 touchdowns in a single season. This record will become Green’s by the end of the 2019 season, though. Green is inching his way closer and closer to being talked about as one of the greatest Bengals of all-time. He has been the best Bengal since he was drafted in 2011, and breaking Johnson’s record would help in any argument of him being the best to ever do it in Cincinnati.

Tyler Eifert needs 16 touchdowns to pass Bob Trumpy in most touchdowns for a tight end

Trumpy set the record at 35 touchdowns. It is sad that mark seems like such a long shot for Eifert. He would have undoubtedly shattered that mark by now if he could’ve stayed healthy. To put this into perspective, Trumpy played 128 games with the Bengals to reach 35 touchdowns. In only 39 games, Eifert has caught 20.

There is a very strong possibility that Eifert never reaches that mark with the Bengals. Eifert’s career high is only 13 touchdowns in a season, and he only has one season left on his contract.

The storybook ending would hopefully be that Eifert stays healthy all season while having an amazing year, and then he re-signs with the Bengals in the offseason. It is hard to see the business aspect of that not getting in the way.

Giovani Bernard needs 68 catches and 953 receiving yards to pass James Brooks as the franchise receiving leader among running backs

Bernard is forgotten too often. Soon, he will be at the top of the receiving categories for Bengals’ running backs. It is doubtful it will be this season, though. We have seen running backs in recent seasons hit these marks, but Bernard has never posted receiving numbers like this. He is also likely going to be relegated to the second running back on the depth chart again.

The only reason I include Bernard is who knows if Lazor will realize what he has in Bernard as a receiver and utilize him more in that role, and because Bernard is talented enough to hit get to these numbers.

It is just a matter of there being too many mouths to feed.