Elijah Holyfield joining Bengals practice squad, per report

The Cincinnati Bengals have a new practice squad addition.

On Tuesday, the team added running back Elijah Holyfield to the practice squad, according to Ian Rapoport. This move comes after the Bengals placed running back Samaje Perine on the COVID-19 reserve list.

The son of legendary boxer Evander Holyfield, Elijah is still trying to carve out a professional career in football. The former Georgia Bulldogs running back has bounced around several NFL teams since 2019, and Cincinnati will be his latest stop.

After playing sparingly over his first two years in Athens, Holyfield broke out in his junior season in 2018 with 159 carries for 1,018 yards and seven scores while sharing carries with D’Andre Swift, who is now the starting running back for the Detroit Lions. Holyfield also had five receptions for 40 yards that year.

Holyfield then declared for the 2019 NFL Draft as a true junior, went undrafted, joined the Carolina Panthers practice squad, joined the Philadelphia Eagles’ active roster in December, was part of Philly’s practice squad in 2020, signed a futures contract with them this past offseason, then was waived by the team this past August and has been waiting for his next NFL opportunity ever since. He’s appeared in one career game with no statistics.

Ironically, Bengals defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo is a big boxing analogy guy and has even shown his players old Evander Holyfield matches.

Do I sense a future pep talk from Evander for the Bengals defense?

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