Bengals at Bills snap counts: Previewing how Cincinnati will operate in the regular season

We didn’t quite get the third week of the preseason game that a lot of people were expecting. We got better as the Bengals beat the Bills 26-13.

Many teams play their starters into the third quarter in the third week of the preseason, but the Bengals starters were so impressive that there wasn’t much of a point in playing them that long. Most starters exited shortly after the second quarter got underway.

We did see plenty of trends beginning to form from our first extended look at the Bengals starters though, and some roster battles have become slightly more clear as the final preseason game approaches.

Snap count takeaways:

• Joe Mixon (18) and Giovani Bernard (19) will still be splitting snaps despite what some national analysts may be telling you. It may just be the preseason, and you may think Cincinnati is just trying to keep Mixon healthy. However, this is a trend we have seen even when Jeremy Hill was still around. Even last season when Mixon became the starter, Bernard still got a little bit less than half the snaps at running back. It looks like this is something that will continue into 2018.
• Bengals guard Alex Redmond (51) started the game for the bengals on the right side, but he was replaced only a few series into the game after getting called for two penalties. He made an appearance in the John Ross highlight-reel catch as he was being escorted into Andy Dalton’s lap before the quarterback fired the ball downfield. Trey Hopkins (25) replaced him before Redmond came back in and played with the second unit. It should also be noted that Christian Westerman (6) left the game with a back injury. He had played at left guard in his limited time on the field.
• We saw the first snaps for Tyler Eifert (14) this season. It wasn’t a lot, but he caught one pass, and he was man handled on his only other target. It is still great to see him out there. He didn’t even come close to his 50 snap limit that the team is hoping to have in the regular season.
• The defensive line will clearly be rotating guys in fairly often during the regular season. The Bengals finished with six sacks, and they did it with a bunch of different names getting pressure. Carl Lawson (20) got 2.5 sacks, but one of those was aided by Geno Atkins (15) pushing his lineman into Josh Allen, which pushed Allen back into Lawson’s waiting arms. Atkins finished with half a sack. Andrew Billings (19) was also very active with 1.5 sacks, and Jordan Willis (47) — who played the most defensive snaps of the game — kicked in a half sack as well. There is no doubt we will be seeing plenty of names getting to the quarterback in the regular season.
• Jessie Bates played 35 snaps. He didn’t show up in the box score that much, but when you watched the game you’d see him near the ball on almost every play. As far as the other safeties on the roster, Trayvon Henderson (30) is going to make it hard for the Bengals not to keep him. He had four tackles and a sack on Sunday, and he clearly played more than his competition in Josh Shaw (14). Brandon Wilson (41) also left the game with an undisclosed injury. The Bengals will be keeping Clayton Fejedelem (1) for his special teams talents, so Henderson could end up being the fifth safety on the team.
• In case there was any debate, Nick Vigil (32) and Preston Brown (32) will be the Bengals’ nickel linebackers while Vontaze Burfict is out. Jordan Evans will be starting, but he only played 22 snaps, which means he came off the field when the defense went with its nickel look.
• Cethan Carter looks like someone the Bengals are paying close attention to. He played 25 snaps on offense and 20 on special teams. He could be a surprise on the 53-man roster, at Ryan Hewitt’s expense.