Samaje

Perine

Pitcher suggested that when they run the ball more from shotgun — as they did last week against the Dolphins — Perine’s a better fit for those kinds of plays. The Bengals spent a lot of time this offseason working on an under center run game to get Brown more explosives, but that has gone for naught early on in the season. We may indeed see more Perine in Cincinnati’s running game after they return from the bye week, lowering Brown into the RB2 range.

Perine was involved heavily against the Dolphins, a surprising development given his lack of touches to open the season. He trailed Chase Brown by just five snaps on the day, getting involved in short-yardage situations and seeing an increase in red zone snaps after Brown’s red zone fumble in the second quarter. He caught a touchdown running a route out of the backfield and finished with 78 total yards. We don’t expect Perine to consistently see this kind of usage, but he is back on the radar as a deep-league FLEX value.

Perine only saw three touches on the day, though he had a rushing touchdown called back for holding in the second quarter. He has generally held a pass-catching role throughout his career but ceded all the backfield pass-catching opportunities to Chase Brown on the day. Perine remains a handcuff in the event of a Brown injury.

He added 16 yards on his only catch, making him the third-leading receiver for the game. Perine has 42 snaps in the first two games of the season and looks like a decent stash in case of a Chase Brown injury.

Perine returned to Cincinnati on a two-year deal in the offseason. He easily took the RB2 gig over rookie Tahj Brooks and eventually parlayed that into a committee role. Perine didn’t log a single carry over the first two weeks but was stacking 10-touch games by November. He finished the year with 84 carries for 382 yards and three scores while adding 17 grabs for 87 yards. Perine was a staple of the RB4 ranks over the final two months of the year. He will likely keep his No. 2 role with the Bengals into the 2026 season.

Perine got the Bengals’ backfield scoring started with a four-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, but then Chase Brown got the next three. Wild. Brown ended up out-touching his veteran backfield mate 16-9. Perine has been much more involved of late, but it’s not creating standalone fantasy value, and it’s somehow not affecting Brown’s. Brown has a plus Week 17 matchup in the Cardinals while Perine remains off the radar.

Perine saw one more carry than Chase Brown, but averaged just three yards per carry on the day with his longest gain coming on an eight-yard pickup. Perine briefly left the game in the fourth quarter due to a knee injury, and was carted to the locker room at one point. Despite all of this, he returned to finish out the day and should be good to go for Week 16 against the Dolphins. Even if he is active, fantasy managers can avoid him next week.

It’s not often we see a player carted to the locker room only to return later in the game. That said, Perine did exactly that in the fourth quarter after exiting earlier with a knee injury. Perine didn’t even miss a drive despite the injury, and returned to take more carries from Chase Brown.

Perine remained down on the field after a third down carry and appeared to be grabbing at his knee. He was eventually helped off by trainers, but later carted from the field. This will spell the end of the day for Perine, who was splitting work with Chase Brown all afternoon and exits with a rushing line of 9-31-0. He also caught one pass for one yard.

Perine missed the previous two games with an ankle injury but was cleared to play early this week. The Bengals immediately split their backfield in two, giving Perine just one fewer carry than Chase Brown. The latter, of course, was far more efficient, running for 5.2 yards per carry compared to 2.8 for Perine. Perine also coughed up a red zone fumble late in the game. He still saw carries on the next drive, meaning his coaches weren’t deterred by the mistake. Perine doesn’t hold much fantasy value heading into Week 14, but he will be a thorn in the side of fantasy managers hoping for a better workload from Brown.