Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan was about as open as it gets on Monday while talking about his unit’s struggles over the first six games of the season.
Speaking with reporters at his weekly meeting, Callahan said that the Bengals offense has very much been Ja’Marr Chase and pretty much nothing else so far.
“There needs to be more production on offense, in general, for guys not named Ja’Marr Chase.” Callahan said, according to CLNS Media’s Mike Petraglia “End of the day, we’re not scoring enough. We’re not producing enough.”
Callahan went on to say that one of the things they could do to spark the running game is go under center more, which they do less than most of the teams in the league.
Still, even that idea of going under center more is one of those things that is tricky. Joe Burrow infamously prefers shotgun and, given his injured calf, going under center wasn’t really an option, anyway.
But Callahan is right in saying this has mostly been the Chase show so far — and that the excuses don’t really matter.
As such, expect offensive improvement to be a focal point of the bye, especially with Burrow avoiding a setback and someone like Tee Higgins getting extra time to rest his injury.