It might already be too late (really bugs me that ESPN runs their waivers overnight Tuesday rather than Wednesday), but make sure Samaje Perine is on a roster. He might need to start for the Bengals this week.
Joe Mixon suffered a concussion at Pittsburgh, and he's not certain to be able to play this week. Zach Taylor says Mixon is in the protocol. If he's out, backup Samaje Perine might be very good. As he was with Mixon sidelined last week, when he caught 3 TDs.
Mixon missed the second half of the 2020 season, and I took a look at how Perine fared in those games. Since he wasn't the clear No. 2 at the time (that was Giovani Bernard) I had to look at that, too. Not surprisingly, the Bernard games were better, but it's Perine in that role right now.
Anyway, here's how Perine fared in the games he played in that Mixon missed that season. He had a lesser role in a lot of them, but was very busy in one (semi-busy in another).
| PERINE WITHOUT MIXON, 2020 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opp | Run | No | Rec | TD | PPR |
| Ten. | 32 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 10.4 |
| at Pit. | 48 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 6.5 |
| at Was. | 19 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3.1 |
| NYG | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1.2 |
| at Mia. | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.7 |
| Dal. | 32 | 2 | 9 | 0 | 6.1 |
| Pit. | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.4 |
| at Hou. | 95 | 4 | 41 | 2 | 29.6 |
And here's how Bernard fared in those games. Collectively, that's 5 20-point (PPR) games in the 9 he missed (Perine also missed one of those games).
| BERNARD WITHOUT MIXON, 2020 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opp | Run | No | Rec | TD | PPR |
| Cle. | 37 | 5 | 59 | 1 | 20.6 |
| Tenn. | 62 | 3 | 16 | 2 | 22.8 |
| at Pit. | 30 | 4 | 17 | 0 | 8.7 |
| at Was. | 18 | 4 | 37 | 0 | 9.5 |
| NYG | 32 | 2 | 17 | 0 | 6.9 |
| at Mia. | 30 | 2 | -1 | 0 | 4.9 |
| Dal. | 8 | 3 | 15 | 0 | 5.3 |
| Pit. | 83 | 1 | 14 | 2 | 22.7 |
| at Hou. | 65 | 7 | 66 | 0 | 20.1 |
Cincinnati also has Chris Evans, who will presumably play more, but Perine should be the primary beneficiary. Make sure to add him, if it's not too late.
--Andy Richardson