|
CINCINNATI -- The Cincinnati Bengals have seen their first-round pick John Ross play a total of five snaps this season. Ross's debut in Week 2, already pushed back by a preseason injury, was short-lived after he re-injured his knee just a few plays into a loss to the Texans. Now Ross is healthy enough to play against the Colts on Sunday, and it couldn't come at a better time. The Bengals (2-4), are already down two receivers after Cody Core and Tyler Boyd were declared out on Friday. With those two out, Ross should see significant playing time on Sunday. If all goes well, the Bengals will finally get to see what the fastest player on their team can do at this level. So far, nobody really knows what that is.  "I would say it's Week 1 (for him)" Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said.
Ross is going to have to build up a rapport and trust factor with the coaches that can only come with time on the field. That starts Sunday with the Colts. "We didn't pick him to hesitate. I'm not wavering off why we drafted him at all. If the opportunity comes and he's at the tip of the sword, I expect him to deliver," Lewis said. "I think when he gets his opportunity to play, the more he plays, the bigger he grows. He's like any other player. He's like (William) Jackson. Where he was in Green Bay compared to where he is now is light years from where he was. ... Those things are important for those guys. When you're a rookie the expectations are so high already, particularly when you're a first-round pick, and then when it doesn't happen the way you want right away. Dre (Kirkpatrick) has been through it, Andre (Smith) has been through it. It's funny, because they all tell these guys 'Hey, look, I went through the same thing.' You want to be out there and going." It has been a stop-and-go year for Ross, who played in only two preseason games while recovering from offseason labrum surgery. Shortly into the first quarter of the Bengals' final preseason game against the Colts, Ross went down with a knee injury while running a jet sweep that went for 25 yards. When he returned from that injury in Week 2, he was benched after fumbling against the Texans. In the process, he also aggravated the knee injury and was sidelined again. Ross' availability has received lot of scrutiny due to his first-round status, although Lewis said he doesn't look at it that way. Ross has been in Cincinnati long enough that he's just another rookie who needs to prove himself. "I just see him as another guy and I forget," Lewis said. "In everybody else's mind, John's status is larger than it is in mine. You have to earn status in mine. But he's had a good two weeks of practice, which is what he needed to have, and we'll just keep going." Outside of Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who hasn't been needed as a backup to Alex Smith, Ross has played the least of any first-round pick this season. Mike Williams, Corey Davis and Reuben Foster also have seen limited playing time due to injuries, but all of them have more snaps than Ross. If Ross is able to stay on the field, that could change quickly. The first step has been getting Ross back to a point where coaches no longer hold their breath in fear that he'll get hurt again in practice. "The one thing he was never able to do was practice against the defense," Lewis said. "And to me, that's one of the best things, as far as honing your craft, when you have to practice against the other side of the ball. But now you're getting as live replicated reps as we can get you. And he didn't have that for all of training camp. That's a lot. That's a lot of snaps that were lost. Just figure, he had a third of the snaps at training camp, a third of the snaps at OTAs, that's 600 snaps he hasn't been a part of. Then you come to the season and you have roughly 60-70 snaps on both sides of the ball each day." And the next step is building that trust factor up while building up Ross' confidence as well. "It's been good, and I think it's been (good) for him as well," Lewis said of the last few weeks of practice. "I think his confidence level is way better than it was, which is a good thing. He's been out here with us and (went through) the rigors and ups and downs of practice. He's been knocked down, he's got up. And every time he goes on the ground nobody had to ooh and ahh. He actually falls down now, he's knocked down and he gets back up. That's a good thing."
|
