Josh

Tupou

He limped off the field in the first half and went to the locker room with training staff. Tupou had one tackle before leaving. The already-thin Cincy defensive line is getting tested by New Orleans’ run game.

The massive interior lineman (346 pounds) -- who returned to the team in 2021 after opting out in 2020 -- will return to Cincinnati for a fifth season after starting 16 games over his past two seasons. He’ll rejoin a Bengals defense graded by Pro Football Focus as the league’s eighth worst run stopping unit in 2021.

The behemoth interior lineman, 6'3/345 Tupou played 465 snaps on the Bengals’ defensive line last season. He received strong marks from Pro Football Focus for his run defense. Tupou was expected to be key depth behind starters D.J. Reader and Geno Atkins.

Tupou made seven starts at nose tackle in 2019 and picked up 27 combined tackles with 3.0 TFLs. He’s only a rotational player, but he comes at an affordable cost and is only heading into his age-26 season. Expect him to play approximately 25% of the Bengals’ defensive snaps this upcoming season.