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With Giovani Bernard losing his season to an ACL injury, the expectation was that Jeremy Hill would step up and play a big role in the Cincinnati Bengals' backfield.
That's not quite how things played out in Week 12 though, and per Nathan Jahnke of ProFootballFocus, Rex Burkhead actually out-snapped Hill 38 to 37, as Hill missed some time with an ankle injury.
Hill did out-carry Burkhead 12 to 5, but Burkhead was by far the more efficient of the two, per our numbers from numberFire Live.
| Player | Rushes | Yards | Rush NEP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rex Burkhead | 5 | 29 | 0.37 |
| Jeremy Hill | 12 | 21 | -4.04 |
Burkhead has also been the more efficient receiver over the small receiving samples in their respective careers, with a 0.36 Reception NEP per target compared to only a 0.25 for Hill.
He's not going to take over the backfield or anything, but that edge in efficiency is a good sign that Burkhead will continue to see a healthy number of snaps, which is very promising heading into a Week 13 matchup against a Philadelphia Eagles team that ranks 23rd in Adjusted Defensive Rushing NEP per play as well as a Week 14 matchup against the Cleveland Browns, who rank 31st in that category.