May 29th, 2009 
Matt Loede 
Posted in Football Outsiders has out their list of “The Top 10 unfilled roster holes,” and the Bengals make the list with their unsettled RB spot. Here’s the story:
3. Cincinnati Bengals: Running Back
Impressed by the 282 rushing yards Cedric Benson picked up in the final three games of the season, the Bengals gave the former top-five pick a two-year, $7 million deal and made him the full-time starting back. The only problem? Benson wasn’t even very good. Because his two biggest games came against the porous rush defenses of Cleveland (22nd-best rushing DVOA in the league) and Kansas City (28th), gaining those 282 yards on a combined 73 carries wasn’t a particularly impressive feat. His DVOA of minus-19.1 percent for those two games reveals how middling his performance actually was, and over the course of the year, his minus-34 DYAR was sixth-worst among all running backs.
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