Similar to the way his quarterback can feel pressure before it arrives, Bengals head coach Zac Taylor could sense the question before it was asked.
“Joe Mixon is our starting running back,” Taylor said in response to a question about how much value there is in having two backs who can share touches and reduce wear and tear the later it gets in the season.
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Samaje Perine’s impressive performances the last three games while Mixon dealt with a concussion have stirred debate about what their roles might look like upon Mixon’s return, which appears to be set for Sunday against the Browns.
Mixon cleared the final step of concussion protocol Wednesday with a return to full participation in practice, a session that was held less than 45 minutes after Taylor’s news conference. And it’s obvious the Bengals are trying to shut down any suggestion there should be a lineup change.
“In the last (full) game he played in, he had five touchdowns,” Taylor said of Mixon, referencing the 42-21 victory against the Panthers on Nov. 6, when Mixon became the first player in team history to cross the goal line five times in a game.
Mixon rushed for 158 yards that day, his most since putting up 82 in the season opener, and four of his touchdowns. He also had four catches for 58 yards and a score and was named the AFC Offensive Player of the Week.
But he suffered a concussion in the first half at Pittsburgh the following Sunday, and Perine responded with three of the best games of his career, capped by a career-high 155 scrimmage yards Sunday in the 27-24 game against the Chiefs. Perine gained 106 of those yards on the ground, averaging 5.1 yards per carry.
GO DEEPER
Bengals score 27-20 win against Chiefs
“He’s been unbelievable for us,” Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow said. “If there’s nothing there in the run, he still gets us three. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but that means everything when you’re staying ahead of the chains.
“He’s been fantastic,” offensive coordinator Brian Callahan added. “But I’m going to be a little bit tongue-in-cheek here: No one wants to replace Ja’Marr (Chase) with Trenton Irwin, even though Trenton’s played really good for us.
“There’s a recency bias where Samaje has played really well for us,” he continued. “And we’ve needed him too. He’s stepped up, just like Trenton Irwin stepped up and played a role for us and made some big plays for us. Obviously, we love Joe. There’s nothing Joe has done wrong for us carrying the ball. As a runner, he’s been really good.”
Samaje Perine runs against the Chiefs in the first half Sunday. (Katie Stratman / USA Today)Not just good, but best in the league when it comes to rushing efficiency, which is the top priority for the Taylor/Callahan offense.
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Since Week 5, Mixon has a league-leading rush success rate of 53.9 percent. Atlanta’s Cordarrelle Patterson (52) and Miami’s Jeff Wilson (52) are the only other backs above 50 percent. Mixon ranks second in total rush EPA (expected points added) at 13.77, behind Dallas’ Tony Pollard (18.45). And he’s seventh in yards per carry at 5.01.
So it’s easy to see why the Bengals are shutting down any notion of Mixon losing his starting job, regardless of how well Perine has performed in the lead-back role.
You know who else is dismissing the question? Perine.
“That don’t got nothing to do with me,” he said. “I just come in, do my job and whatever they tell me to do, I’m gonna do it.”
Mixon is going to start and handle the base downs, while Perine is going to go back to his third-down and two-minute roles, as has been the case since about midway through last season. Perine is one of the best blocking running backs in the league, while that’s a glaring hole in Mixon’s skill set.
The biggest question is what happens on second-and-long? Can the Bengals use the success Perine has had running downhill to exploit their tendencies?
In Weeks 1-10 when Mixon and Perine were both available, Burrow dropped back to pass on 115 of the 156 plays (73.7 percent) when Perine was on the field. If the thought is that Mixon deserves to keep the lead-back role, but Perine has earned the right to get more reps, those second-and-long situations could be where you see the shift.
It would break tells and achieve the goal of more of a load split with an eye toward having both backs feel a little fresher as the games get bigger.
“To have those two guys that you’ve got a lot of confidence in, whatever the moment calls for, we think that’s very valuable to have, especially going into this late-season stretch, and hopefully beyond that,” Taylor said.
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The other benefit would be to see which back is having more success against the looks that week’s opponent is presenting.
“There is a time when guys get hot and you feel it, and you just keep giving them the ball,” Callahan said. “You kind of know early on when guys are feeling it. It’s not every game, but there’s definitely times when you stay with the guy who’s really rolling if you’re rotating guys in and out.”
The argument against that, of course, would be that some backs need those early touches to find a rhythm, and Mixon has shown signs of that with some struggles early in games before the bigger runs start to pop.
There’s also the issue of hierarchy. Mixon is a captain. He’s making more than $8 million this year. Perine is making $1.4 million. Not that any of that would be a deciding factor in roles and playing time, but it’s a variable that can’t be ignored.
But sharing carries and snaps is something Mixon and Perine have been through before, at the University of Oklahoma. They were high school seniors when they met at an OU spring practice, and they shared a backfield in 2015 and 2016. In their final year with the Sooners, Mixon had 187 carries for 1,274 yards and 10 touchdowns, while Perine had 196 for 1,060 and 12 scores.
“He’s a great dude, great friend, a brother,” Perine said. “I’ve known him for eight or nine years now. In football terms, that’s a very long time. He’s just a very outgoing guy, a lot different than what I was, what I am. But that seemed to work for us. I guess you could say opposites attract. He’s the one who will talk to you, and I’ll just be the one who sits back and listens.
“It works great,” he continued. “He gets all the attention. I love it.”
Lately, it’s been Perine getting all the attention with the way he’s played in Mixon’s absence.
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Perine had three touchdown receptions in the game against the Steelers when Mixon was injured. He followed that with 93 scrimmage yards and a score in the 20-16 win at Tennessee, and a career-high 155 scrimmage yards last week in the 27-24 victory against the Chiefs.
Perine has 589 scrimmage yards this season, 196 shy of the career-high 785 he set as a rookie with Washington.
And it’s not just the numbers, but the tone-setting stiff-arms early in the wins against the Titans and Chiefs.
ANGRIEST OF THEM ALL
Samaje Perine is your week 12 ANGRY RUN WINNER 😡🏃♂️@samajp32 | @gmfb pic.twitter.com/wUuQyD31QI
— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) November 29, 2022
Perine received the Angry Run scepter from NFL Network personality Kyle Brandt following the Tennessee game and still has it in his locker.
“Samaje has shown he’s fully capable of being a starting-caliber running back in this league, but that’s not to say his role hasn’t been huge for us all year in the third-down roles and protection roles,” Callahan said. “He doesn’t get enough notice or recognition for them. Now that you see him get more touches and more carries, he’s shown how capable of a player he is.
“But we’re gonna use all the guys we’ve got,” Callahan said. “There’s still five games left, plus hopefully a handful of games in January and February. It’s physical, and we’re gonna need both of those guys to play well.”
(Photo: Mark J. Rebilas / USA Today)
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