Khalid Kareem activated to 53-man roster; Trayveon Williams elevated from practice squad

The Cincinnati Bengals have officially activated defensive end Khalid Kareem to the 53-man roster, the team announced Saturday.

Additionally, the team elevated running back Trayveon Williams from the practice squad to the active roster. Williams will automatically revert to the practice squad on Monday.

Kareem, who’d been on IR since September 2nd with a shoulder injury, got the IR-return designation October 13th, and has been practicing ever since. A second-year player from Notre Dame, Kareem was a fifth-round NFL Draft pick of the Bengals in 2020. He played in all 16 games as a rookie while logging 259 defensive snaps, producing 19 total tackles, one sack, one tackle for loss and two QB hits.

This past offseason, Kareem suffered a shoulder that caused him to miss most of training camp and the first two weeks of the preseason. He played in the preseason finale vs. the Miami Dolphins but re-aggravated his injury and eventually landed on IR.

The Bengals have been getting great production out of Trey Hendrickson and Sam Hubbard at defensive end, but after them, rookie Cam Sample and third-year man Wyatt Ray haven’t done much. In 288 combined defensive snaps between the two, they’ve produced two sacks, one tackle for loss, 16 total tackles and four QB hits through seven games.

As for Williams, he’ll be essentially taking the third-string running back role Sunday with Chris Evans (hamstring) ruled out. Look for Joe Mixon and Samaje Perine to get most, if not all of the backfield touches.