‘Zack Moss Is Going To Have a Big Year’ – Joe Burrow Shouts Out Bengals’ Week 1 ‘Starting’ RB

CINCINNATI – When the Cincinnati Bengals announce their offensive starters before kickoff of Sunday’s season opener against the New England Patriots, Zack Moss is going to hear his name and run out of the tunnel.

Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said not to read too much into that.

But that’s not entirely true.

Bengals Rolling With Co-Starters in Zack Moss, Chase Brown

Taylor said not to read a single damn thing into it.

“My favorite thing in the world is talking about the depth chart,” he said before Wednesday’s practice, the sarcasm dripping down the microphone and pooling on the podium.

“Which I pay no attention to whatsoever,” he clarified in case anyone didn’t hear the splash. “We’ve got a lot of players who are starters. It can depend on what personnel grouping we have on the field for the first play of the game. To me, it’s meaningless. I know we have to do it. I put no time into it because I think we have a lot of players who are capable of being starting players for us. Sometimes the head coach has to point to just one of them.”

Chase Brown is going to run out of the tunnel with the starters ahead of the next home game when the offensive players are announced, in Week 5 against the Baltimore Ravens.

Since signing Moss to a two-year, $8 million free-agent deal in March and shipping Joe Mixon to the Houston Texans, the plan always was to pair Moss with Chase Brown in an attempt to restore an explosive element to the running game.

There not only were no promises of a starting job but there were no assurances the offense would operate with a lead back the way it has in the past. Mixon was handed 74% of the running back snaps and 69% of the rushing attempts during the Taylor era.

But first-year offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher said Moss is going to see a lot more action than he has in the first four years of his career when he averaged 121 attempts per season.

"You're getting a player who's hungry, ready to work and excited to play in front of you."

Who Dey Nation, THIS is Zack Moss ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/8yuscTp33z

— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) March 20, 2024

“I view Zack Moss as an all-around player,” Pitcher said. “He can run any scheme. He has tremendous lateral quickness. He’s a difficult tackle. You’ll see Zack Moss’ value more that live games are here than you’ve ever seen to this point.

“He has great contact balance, vision. He’s able to gain tough yards, tight crease yards. He’s an all-around player.”

As for Brown, the team’s fifth-round pick a year ago who struggled to get on the field until late in the season?

“Chase Brown is building himself into an all-around player,” Pitcher said. “Currently, he’s a very explosive football player. Chase Brown is one of the fastest backs in the league. I think you’ll see that on display. There’s versatility within both of their skill sets. We’ll do our best to use them in ways that allow them to shine and maybe the areas that are still developing.

“They’ll both have to show up,” Pitcher continued. “They’ll both have to block on first and second down. They’ll both have to catch the football. They’ll both have to run and break tackles. We expect both of them to do those things.”

Moss didn’t play in the preseason opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers due to illness, but he participated in the joint practices against the Chicago Bears and his former team, the Indianapolis Colts.

And he took a slightly larger share of the first-team reps in training camp.

Quarterback Joe Burrow has seen enough of Moss from April through to August to make a proclamation.

“Zack Moss is going to have a big year,” Burrow said.

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As Pitcher alluded to, the list of responsibilities for both backs is going to be long.

One duty Taylor and Pitcher expect to increase from years past is the running backs’ involvement in the screen game.

Jake Browning made it a true weapon during his seven starts after Burrow went down with the wrist injury, and Brown’s explosiveness was on full display in that role.

Of Chase’s 13 receptions, five were for 10-plus yards, including a 54-yard touchdown against Indianapolis in which he recorded the league’s second-fastest GPS speed of the season at 22.05 mph.

Gotta bring out @chasebrown____ breakout run and first career tuddy for his birthday.

🎥: https://t.co/5Mg0D1cJt6 pic.twitter.com/XIRFUQ3BOo

— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) March 21, 2024

He also had a 25-yarder later in that game, and a 19-yard, drive-opening burst to counter the Kansas City Chiefs’ pass rush in Week 17.

“It’s something we’re going to need, and I think we made strides in that area a year ago,” Pitcher said of the screen game. “That was a year ago. So it’s incumbent on us to make sure that built a foundation for us to continue that trajectory.

“As with any specific scheme question, there are going to be weeks where it’s a bigger part and weeks where it’s not as big, and that has to do with who we have, it has to do with who they have and what they do and what we think is going to give us the best chance to win on Sunday,” he added. “So the screen game is certainly a part of who we need to be on offense, and I expect us to perform well in that area.”