Former Jacksonville Jaguars running back Gary Brightwell has signed with the Cincinnati Bengals practice squad, via NFL Media.
The Jaguars signed Brightwell in early August. He played in all three of the team’s preseason games, carrying the ball 26 times for 100 yards while catching four passes.
Jacksonville finally released Brightwell before the start of the regular season. He then joined the Cleveland Browns, where he appeared in a few games but did not record any statistics. He was released late last month.
Brightwell, who played college football at the University of Arizona, was originally selected by the New York Giants in the sixth round of the 2021 NFL Draft.
In three seasons with the Giants, Brightwell totaled 164 yards and a touchdown on 41 rushing attempts. He added 11 catches for 92 yards.
Ironically, Brightwell beat out his former Jaguars halfback Leonard Fournette for a job with the Bengals. Fournette was also invited to Cincinnati’s practices, but the Bengals decided to roll with the younger Brightwell.
That shows how far Fournette — who had a couple of 1,000-yard campaigns in three seasons with the Jags between 2017 and 2019 — has fallen.
Brightwell was not a very productive player at the college level, amassing a total of 1,305 rushing yards and nine scores in four seasons at Arizona.
However, his physical north-south running style and ability to catch passes out of the backfield made him a rather intriguing late-round prospect a few years ago.
Whether or not Brightwell establishes himself as a legitimate threat at the NFL level remains to be seen, but there clearly wasn’t room for him in a Jaguars backfield that already features Tank Bigsby and Travis Etienne Jr.
Additionally, Jacksonville selected Keilan Robinson, who is on injured reserve, in the fifth round of the draft in April.
That doesn’t mean the Jags are a great running team, though.
The Jaguars rank 25th in the NFL in rushing offense, averaging just 107.7 rushing yards per game. Individually, however, Bigsby has been impressive, having recorded 519 yards and four touchdowns while recording a solid 5.5 yards per attempt.
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