The Bengals turned to rookie Jack Endries this week after injuries wiped out two tight ends in back-to-back games, forcing a change to the depth chart as they prepared Wednesday for Sunday’s game against the Titans. The move gives Endries, a seventh-round pick out of Texas, a bigger role than he had earlier in the season, when the room was healthy enough that he was not needed.
Tanner Hudson went down with a pectoral injury in Miami on Oct. 11, and Erick All Jr. then suffered his third ACL tear in his right knee in the last four seasons last Sunday in Baltimore. That left Cincinnati thin at a spot that had already been asked to absorb a lot, and it is why Endries is suddenly part of the game plan for 1 p.m. against the Titans.
Zac Taylor said he trusts Endries because he has watched him work in practice, meetings and training camp, and because the rookie has had to learn three different positions. Taylor said that has made him ready if his number is called, even if the coach admitted there was a time when Endries simply was not needed because everybody was healthy. Now that time has changed. Taylor said he is not nervous about using him and believes the rookie has earned the chance.
That trust matters because the Bengals do not have much margin left in the room. All missed all of last season after an ACL tear in his ninth game as a rookie, and this latest injury came on a nine-yard catch over the middle against the Ravens in his sixth game this season. He was taken in the fourth round of the 2024 NFL Draft, but this year has become another lost one. Taylor also said the team will support All in his recovery and rehab, a reminder that the depth chart change is happening because the injuries are real, not because the staff wanted to experiment.
Endries is not the only reason Cincinnati can keep moving. Ryan Rehkow has given the Bengals a field-position edge, putting all four of his punts inside the 20 last Sunday and reaching that area on 65% of his kicks this season, second in the league. Bryan Anger of Dallas is slightly ahead of him. But the immediate test is simpler: whether Endries and Cam Grandy can hold up long enough to keep the offense on schedule after the Bengals lost two tight ends in two games. Sunday will tell whether the rookie’s preparation was enough for the role he was waiting for.
