Bengals Place Tyler Boyd, Two Others On IR, Promote 3 Players From Practice Squad

As Week 17 approaches, the Bengals made a flurry of moves. The team is placing receiver Tyler Boyd, cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick, and linebacker Jordan Evans on injured reserve, according to Paul Dehner Jr. of The Cincinnati Enquirer (Twitter link).

To fill their spots on the roster, the team is promoting running back Quinton Flowers, offensive tackle Kent Perkins, and receiver Hunter Sharp from the practice squad. It’s the end of a breakout 2018 season for Boyd, who emerged as one of the top receivers in the league this year. He’ll finish the season with 76 catches for 1,028 yards and seven touchdowns. He shined in the absence of A.J. Green, and said recently he’s open to signing an extension with Cincinnati.

Kirkpatrick is one of the Bengals’ biggest name defensive players but struggled at times this year, earning barely average grades from Pro Football Focus. Evans has played around 50 percent of snaps on defense for the Bengals this year, and the Bengals will be very shorthanded for their finale against the Steelers without all of them. The practice squad players all have some level of intrigue, as Flowers was a college quarterback at South Florida who made a transition to running back for the pros.

Sharp is a 2016 UDFA who has spent time with five teams already. He was on the active roster at times for the Broncos and Giants last year, and caught five passes for 54 yards and a touchdown. Perkins is a 2017 UDFA who has been on Cincinnati’s practice squad for most of the past two seasons. As Katherine Terrell of ESPN points out (Twitter link), the moves will allow the Bengals to have these players under contract going into the offseason, to prevent them from being poached.