Hello, John Newton.
The Cincinnati Bengals took another brutal loss, this one to the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday Night Football.
The biggest rookie takeaway by far in this game was that Josh Newton stepped up when he finally got a chance to play a significant role. The fifth-round pick out of TCU has been lavished with praise from the coaching staff but has only seen occasional action.
With Cam Taylor-Britt’s struggles and DJ Turner’s injury, Newton played 51 snaps and looks to be firmly planted in a starting role for the foreseeable future. Newton had a frivolous penalty called against him, but all-in-all looked pretty solid.
Defensive end Tuli Tuipulotu gave offensive tackle Amarius Mims some fits, but the first-round pick ended up having one of his best games of the season. Mims continues to look like an excellent pick.
Defensive tackles Kris Jenkins and McKinnley Jackson looked pretty solid overall. Despite the absence of Sheldon Rankins, the two did not see a huge leap in their snaps counts. (Jenkins played 38 snaps, and Jackson played 23.) They did not shine on the stat sheet, but both made notable disruptions in the trenches.
Third-round pick Jermaine Burton saw a big dip in his snaps (18) with the return of Tee Higgins. An effort was still made to get him involved with four targets. Unfortunately, he was only able to haul in one catch for eight yards, and even that Jim Harbaugh tried to take away with his little red flag.
Seventh-round center Matt Lee saw one snap as an extra lineman, and UDFA tight end Cam Grandy also saw one in roughly the same capacity.
Fellow UDFA’s Ryan Rehkow and Maema Njongmeta continued to hold it down on special teams. Rehkow averaged 50 yards a punt, with a long of 64, and pinned the Chargers down inside the 20 on two of his five boots.
Njongmenta played 31 special teams snaps and added four more on defense.
