For now, the Cincinnati Bengals coaches, players and fans are all breathing a little more easily.
On Wednesday the Cincinnati Bengals announced that their star defensive tackle Geno Atkins had been cleared by doctors to practice with the team. He was activated off the team’s Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list. Atkins, 26, injured his ACL 9 games into the 2013 season, and missed the rest of the year, including the playoffs. (SIA Profile)
Geno Atkins is practicing. Knee feels great bc he climbed steep hill walking in to avoid media. #Bengals pic.twitter.com/J35AGRUa2h
— Jeremy Rauch (@FOX19Jeremy) July 30, 2014
Atkins is a two-time Pro Bowler (2011, 2012) and was a First Team All-Pro in 2012). In his two Pro Bowl seasons, Geno Atkins had 20.0 sacks and 68 tackles (12.5 of the sacks and 39 tackles in 2012). In 2013, he had 6.0 sacks and 9 tackles in 9 games he played.
The Bengals defense was affected by Atkin’s season ending injury. When he played in 2013 (Week 1-9, the defense gave up 18.4 points per game. Since his injury, (week 10-AFC Wild Card Game), the defense gave up 20.8 points per game.
This is also a good Bengals defense we’re dealing with. The defense gave up 305 points (5th), 4,888 yards (3rd), 3,334 passing yards (5th), and 1,544 rushing yards (5th), ranking in the top 5 fewest in all 4 categories. Having a healthy Geno Atkins back on the field should make this defense consistently scary once again in 2014.
For the latest sports injury news, check out our friends at Sports Injury Alert.
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(Stats via pro-football-reference.com)
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