The Cincinnati Bengals shocked a lot of people when they took injury prone wide receiver John Ross with the No. 9 overall pick of the 2017 NFL Draft. Coming out of Washington, some teams took Ross off their boards because of his history with injuries, yet the Bengals jumped into this risky pool with both feet.
To say Ross’ rookie season has been a disappointment would be a huge understatement. He’s been active for just three games and has just one run to his credit. A play in which he actually fumbled the ball, no less.
Ross has since been placed on injured reserve and won’t play again this year.
Now a new report shows the Bengals really had no idea what to do with Ross in the first place. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk wrote Monday that, “Per multiple sources, the Bengals mentioned to Ross the possibility of taking snaps at defensive back, before Ross recently landed on injured reserve.”
There have been some players to make the jump from receiver to cornerback, but not many. Also, there wasn’t any chatter about Ross being a candidate for this type of role reversal prior to the draft. After all, this is a guy who caught 17 touchdowns last year in Washington.
The Bengals have been one of the NFL’s most dysfunctional teams for years. This is just one more example of that. Drafting Ross that high to begin with, then not really having a strong idea about what to do with him, illustrates all this to a T.