Jeremy Hill Placed on IR by Bengals with Ankle Injury

The Cincinnati Bengals announced Saturday that they placed starting running back Jeremy Hill on injured reserve.

The team had already ruled out Hill for Sunday's game against the Tennessee Titans at Nissan Stadium, as he was dealing with an ankle injury.        

Hill has rarely missed time since he was selected in the second round of the 2014 draft, although he did sit out last week's 23-7 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.

During the first three seasons of his NFL career, Hill missed only one game, the 2016 regular-season finale.

Now in his fourth year out of LSU, Hill has taken a significant backseat to the likes of rookie Joe Mixon and veteran Giovani Bernard.

Hill has carried the ball just 37 times this season for 116 yards to go along with four receptions for 16 yards. He hasn't scored a single touchdown after scoring at least nine in each of his first three campaigns.

In past years, the Bengals would have had to worry about losing a short-yardage workhorse of Hill's caliber. 

But now that they have Mixon in tow alongside Bernard, there's not much reason to fret. 

Mixon is the clear favorite to handle first- and second-down duties with Hill on the shelf, while Bernard's role as a change-of-pace and pass-catching specialist should remain unchanged.