CINCINNATI (AP) — After Cincinnati Bengals' Mitchell Tinsley had a breakout preseason game Monday night, coach Zac Taylor has been impressed with the wide receiver competing for one of the team’s final roster spots.
Tinsley’s emergence has happened that quickly in Bengals’ training camp. After earning his way into getting second-team reps, Tinsley caught two touchdown passes in a 31-17 win over the Washington Commanders and put an exclamation point on his bid for a roster spot.
Cincinnati concludes
the preseason against the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday.
“He just works hard,” Taylor said. “He has become a guy that everybody really respects in the locker room. He just goes out there and just works and we respect that. And again, he created the opportunities for himself.
"He’s done enough in practice to where we wanted to put him in positions to be at the point of attack when he was in the game there, and he rewarded himself with touchdowns and catches and extending drives and someone that’s reliable for the quarterbacks in August.”
Tinsley’s path to get to this point hasn’t been straightforward. He started his college career at Hutchinson Community College in Kansas, where he played for two seasons. He then played for two years at Western Kentucky University and finally transferred to Penn State for his final year of college.
In May 2023, Tinsley signed with the Commanders’ practice squad and spent two years with the organization. He played in two regular-season games and did not catch a pass.
On Monday, Tinsley returned to Washington to face his former team. He said that he didn’t put too much thought into the idea of having a “revenge game.” His biggest priority is doing what he can to make the Bengals.
“I have a lot of goals I want to accomplish,” said Tinsley, who has six receptions for 88 yards in the preseason. “I’m getting close to where I want to be.”
Tinsley signed with the Bengals last January and started training camp close to the bottom of the depth chart in a deep wide receiver room. But as he continued to make plays, Tinsley started getting more opportunities with the first- and second-team offenses.
“There was a lot of hard work I put in over the offseason,” Tinsley said. “I’m glad it’s paying off.”
Even before Tinsley’s standout game in Washington, Taylor rewarded him for his big performance. Taylor made Tinsley along with backup linebacker Joe Giles-Harris the game captains for the preseason game. Tinsley and Giles-Harris both entered training camp with uphill climbs to make the roster, and they’ve both made a lot of plays.
“There are a lot of guys that have had really good camps, but those are just two guys that have just quietly done what we’ve asked them to do and continue to work every single day to get better,” Taylor said. “There could have been a bunch of guys we put out there but just felt appropriate for today. One guy on offense and one guy on defense.”
During practices this summer, Tinsley has shown that making leaping catches is his biggest strength. While he has caught desperation passes and deep throws down the sideline on the practice field, the highlight of his summer so far took place at the end of the first half against the Commanders when he made a toe-tapping, 21-yard touchdown catch right before halftime.
“That was just a straight fade,” Tinsley said. “Jake (Browning) threw me a good ball, and I went up and made a play. That was really it. Nothing too crazy about it.”
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