It’s now official. On Friday morning, Bengals head coach Zac Taylor confirmed that tight end C.J. Uzomah will miss the remainder of the year with a torn Achilles tendon. Uzomah will be placed on injured reserve, freeing up a spot on the club’s active roster. 
Uzomah seemed on course for a big year after catching eight of Joe Burrow‘s eleven targets for 87 yards and a touchdown. Now, he’ll have to turn his focus to 2021. In the interim, Drew Sample seems poised for a larger role in the offense, and the Bengals will likely look to add another tight end off the bench to join Cethan Carter. Fortunately, the Bengals are rostering two tight ends on their expanded practice squad in Mitchell Wilcox and Mason Schreck.
Through two games, Burrow has been dialed in on Uzomah and wide receiver Tyler Boyd, who has eleven grabs for 105 yards and 1 TD thus far. It’s possible that Sample will absorb all of Uzomah’s would-be looks, and he might be able to capitalize on them in similar fashion. As a rookie last year, Sample registered just five receptions through nine games. Now, he’s looking like more than a blocking TE. Last night, he finished out with seven catches for 45 yards.
In the least shocking news article of the day, what we all expected was confirmed. Sucks for the Bengals
As I was watching last night’s game, before Uzomah even got hurt, I was thinking to myself that I could definitely expect to see Cincinnati attempt a trade for Zach Ertz. As Aikman deftly noted, Burrow’s preference for inside receivers and tight ends is definitely noticeable. In college, he targeted Moss as a high profile receiver despite his limited production in the years prior. Justin Jefferson ran a heavy dose of inside slants.
Last night, Boyd as an inside receiver and both tight ends caught the vast majority of Burrow’s targets, and he looked most comfortable under duress (which figures to happen often in the coming years). Either Burrow naturally targets those types of receivers (which is likely) or Taylor intentionally put those sets out there to cater to Burrow (which is also likely, as well as to help a poor O-line with blocking).
With this in mind, and the Bengals’ high profile effort to convince Burrow that they are committed to him and to winning, I just couldn’t help but imagine them making a play for Zach Ertz. It’s ironic, considering how Ertz and Eifert were compared head-to-head in their draft year as prospects, but Cincinnati has money to spend, and figures to try and contend within two years. The roster still has many holes of course, but by acquiring Burrow the franchise committed to making a real attempt at contention soon.
Drew has played well in a small Sample size
Nentwigs would be proud