Ryan Hewitt

Bengals running back Jeremy Hill is having season-ending ankle surgery for an injury that coach Marvin Lewis says didn’t have to end Hill’s season.

Lewis said on Monday that two doctors agreed that Hill could have played the rest of the season on his ankle and had surgery after the season, but Hill chose to do it now.

“Jeremy thinks he needs to have ankle surgery,” Lewis said, via the Cincinnati Enquirer. “Yeah, I think I would be [surprised]. I think he’s consulted a couple physicians, both said that this was something that could wait until after the season but he just felt like it was causing too much discomfort.”

Hill hadn’t been on the Bengals’ official injury report and Lewis said he didn’t need to be, because he wasn’t experiencing any issues that would indicate he couldn’t play.

Related players: Joe Mixon, Giovani Bernard, Ryan Hewitt

As the story said, it doesn't seem like Lewis and Hill are on the same page here. Hill is clearly looking out for his future and wants to be ready to go next season. He's in the last year of his contract and it seems unlikely he'll be back with Mixon in the fold. As for Mixon, it looks like he'll be getting the bigger workload he's been looking for with Bernard remaining the third-down and change-of-pace back.