The Bengals put BenJarvus Green-Ellis on blast this offseason when they used a second-round pick to draft hammer-dropping running back Jeremy Hill out of LSU.Â
Cincinnati's crowded backfield had us wondering all summer if Law Firm would lose his starting job, and the team on Friday made it so.
Roster cuts tracker
NFL teams have until 4 p.m. ET on Aug. 30 to trim their rosters to 53 players. Around The NFL is following each team's moves. **READ**
The team announced Green-Ellis has been released after two seasons and 31 starts coach Marvin Lewis. The 29-year-old's $2.3 million salary made this a logical decision for a Bengals front office looking to get younger at the position.
New offensive play-caller Hue Jackson now rolls into September with Hill and Giovani Bernard as his thunder-and-lightning backfield combination. We expect the Bengals to magnify the ground game and heavily reduce pass attempts for quarterback Andy Dalton.
With Green-Ellis battling a nagging hip injury, Hill made the most of his opportunities in August, capping his preseason with 90 yards on the ground and another 70 through the air in Thursday night's thumping of the Colts.
Green-Ellis piled up 1,850 yards at a pedestrian 3.7 yards per carry during his run in Cincy, but he was never more than a stopgap for a team that used high picks in back-to-back drafts to grow more dynamic on the ground.
You can track all the cuts as NFL teams reduce their rosters to 53 right here.
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