Bengals.com writer Geoff Hobson on the team's running back situation: Jeremy Hill may be the bell cow next year, but Giovani Bernard is still going to get a lot of key touches as the change-of-pace guy. If Hill gets 15-to-20 touches a game, Gio gets 8-11. The only question is how. I think Hue Jackson uses him a lot more in the pass game this year. With Jermaine Gresham expected to be gone, I’m going to write in Gio for 60 catches.
Over the first seven weeks, Bernard averaged 18.7 touches compared to 9.0 for rookie Jeremy Hill. The script flipped once Bernard missed three games in the middle of the season due to injury. Hill averaged 22.0 touches for nearly 130 yards during that span and took over as the team's primary runner. Then, over the final six games, Hill averaged 20.0 touches for 104 total yards, while Bernard saw 13.3 touches for 67 total yards. Bernard averaged 12.2 PPR FP in that span, so he should still be a solid RB2 in PPR formats, even in a reduced role.
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