An NFL team with its eyes on a Super Bowl has a responsibility uphold a higher standard. Players may have bad games here and there, but tolerating poor effort and clear lack of application is not only unacceptable, it sends the wrong message to the entire team. For these reasons, the Cincinnati Bengals can not hold on to Jackson Carman a second longer.
A former second-round pick from three years ago, Carman has spent his entire professional career under the microscope for reasons both in and out of his control. Being drafted earlier than expected, losing out on every competition he’s been in, an off-field story that arrived late to the public eye. These have defined him because his play on the field has never been enough to block out the noise.
Saturday night proved that Carman isn’t any better than he’s always been. No, it’s actually worse. It proved he doesn’t want to be better. There’s no room for players like him on this Bengals team.
The Bengals need to cut Jackson Carman soon, if not right now
Preseason snap counts can usually tell you more than you’d think. The guys who see the field the most have the most to prove. You’re talking about late-round selections and names firmly on the roster bubble.
So why was a former 46th overall pick entering his fourth season leading the Bengals’ offense with 38 snaps played on Saturday night against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers? Because Carman can no longer use his draft status as a crutch in comparison to the UDFAs and Day 3 picks he has to fend off every year.
Carman entered the game with the second-team offense in the middle of the first quarter and never left afterwards. Could that be explained due to D’Ante Smith not being healthy enough to fill in at left tackle? Partially. Five tackles saw the field for Cincinnati, and Carman out-snapped them all.
More reps for an experienced guy like Carman should mean more chances to prove his competency against lesser players. The opposite proved to be reality.
Carman was penalized a whopping four times (only three were accepted by Tampa Bay). Two were false starts in front of his home crowd, mistakes you’d expect from someone with three fewer offseasons of development. Someone who hasn’t played in meaningful games before. Someone who hasn’t been working in the same offense with the same coaching staff for well over 36 months.
When players show you who they are, believe them.
The plays Carman wasn’t penalized for weren’t much better. The hardest hit third-string quarterback Logan Woodside took came from his blindside right after completing a pass to rookie running back Elijah Collins. Carman was slow out of his stance and let Buccaneers edge rusher Jose Ramierz dip under his pads around the corner to lay the hit on Woodside.
The very next snap saw Noah Cain, another UDFA tailback, come over to help Carman in pass protection as his chip led to Carman burying Ramirez. Rookies in their first taste of NFL action helping out a soon-to-be veteran who should be playing clean ball in this setting.
Film won’t lie in this case — film his coaches and teammates will see very clearly. This was an uninspiring outing in all phases, and one that has to have ramifications.
Cutting Carman was already a likely course of action for the Bengals. Three tackles are the usual number to be active on game days. Orlando Brown Jr., Amarius Mims, and Trent Brown are the best trio Cincinnati has had since the days of Andrew Whitworth, Andre Smith, and Anthony Collins. A fourth tackle may not even be needed on the active roster if an extra can simply be added to the practice squad so a second-team line can be had during the week.
The Bengals don’t need the cap space they’d receive in offloading Carman, but his base salary of $1,675,904 also represents how much they’d free up in the process. Veteran minimum is about half of that number, and there are players who provide twice the value as Carman on the team earning it.
The only, and I mean only reason why Carman should stick around for a little while longer in these next four weeks is so the Bengals can attempt to trade him away. A B.J. Hill-for-Billy Price type deal would be an absolute dream, and dreams may be the only place you’ll find one of the 31 other clubs interested in giving up anything in exchange for Carman.
It’s all Carman has left to offer: fantasies of something better.
The Bengals took a huge chance on Carman three years ago. They faced the backlash of reaching for him over other quality offensive linemen. They gave him fair chances to secure a starting spot for two years. They held onto him knowing a reserve is all he’d be.
It’s gone as bad as imaginable, and it’s time to move on.
