Bengals: 3 Giovanni Bernard replacements in 2021 NFL Draft

1. Kenneth Gainwell, Memphis

In 2019 his last year at Memphis, Kenneth Gainwell showed up big time with 1459 rushing yards and 16 total touchdowns. He can also make big plays in the screen game or slot with 51 catches for 610 yards. He will bring a similar style as Bernard did, but with a better athletic profile overall. Gainwell has the upside of a true number one running back. With the injury history of Joe Mixon having a guy who has a shot to be a starter at any moment is invaluable to a franchise with a bad offensive line.

He is a smaller back compared to Joe Mixon so I wouldn’t expect him to take away any goal-line work, but long third downs should be his money maker.

If that offensive line doesn’t improve he is small and shifty enough to make some extended plays out of nothing. He still has some work to do as far as vision goes and getting a little stronger, but should fit in with what the Bengals need. If he had another year of college starter experience I would expect him to be an easy second round running back.

He’s still quite green and new to the position as he was a Quarterback in high school and has just one full year of starter time at running back. But, with guys like Antonio Gipson showing that some guys can just be made for running back after not spending a ton of time at the position at the next level I wouldn’t point to that being a big issue.

There could be a lot of upside here at worse, he can contribute the same as Bernard did at a much lower financial value.