Last year, Bengals receiver Andrew Hawkins emerged as an important part of the offense, catching 51 passes for 533 yards and four touchdowns. This year, Hawkins may not even see the field until midway through the start of the regular season.
Hawkins has been dealing with an ankle injury, and coach Marvin Lewis said today that Hawkins is a candidate to go on injured reserve, with the designation for return. If that happens, Hawkins couldn’t be on the active roster until Week Eight at the earliest.
“Andrew was placed in a cast and he’ll be in the cast for another 10 days and go from there,” Lewis said. “It allows the opportunity to make sure we don’t inadvertently injure it more. It gives it a chance to settle down and begin to mend. He’s very optimistic that he’ll be ready to go at some point here, so we’ll see. At least for the next 10 days or so he’s going to be in this cast. Then we’ll have a little better update after that.”
Although Hawkins missing a significant period of time would hurt, the Bengals have plenty of weapons for quarterback Andy Dalton. A.J. Green is one of the top receivers in the league, 2012 draft picks Mohamed Sanu and Marvin Jones have shown promise, Jermaine Gresham is a Pro Bowl tight end, and rookie tight end Tyler Eifert and rookie running back Giovani Bernard are both expected to play a significant role in the passing game.