Cincinnati Bengals wideout Andrei Iosivas is the breakout player of training camp so far.
So much so, he isn’t just getting big public praise from Joe Burrow — he’s even starting to take Ja’Marr Chase routes in practice.
With Chase watching from the sidelines during his “hold-in” over what appears to be a contract extension, Iosivas spent some of the late part of the week running routes that would normally go to the offense’s top target.
Specifically, Iosivas caught a touchdown on a third-and-one from Burrow with the first team on a route that usually belongs to Chase.
“When we install routes and concepts, we install how it is on paper then we look at how it’s actually run in the game,” Iosivas said, according to Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic. “I’ve had a little mental area of how Ja’Marr ran it and how he scored, so I pretty much tried to do the same thing and it worked.”
And here’s Burrow, via Dehner: “Andrei’s gonna have a year. I’m really excited about how he’s coming along. Wherever he ends up playing, whether it’s inside or outside, he’s able to do it all.”
None of this means anything about Chase’s holdout — the routes have to go to someone while he’s out, right?
But that some of the reps have gone to Iosivas says it all about his training camp so far. He’s been playing in the slot and boundary as he gears up to likely be the main presence as the third wideout in trio looks and the main guy off the bench if Chase or Higgins can’t go.
