Does Samaje Perine Present the Biggest Risk to Chase Brown?

2025 Fantasy Football Impact

Let's start with this: Perine's not a real threat to Brown's value. That snap split referenced above put Brown on the field for 75% of the first-team reps, which would be plenty. And it's also a small sample from one game. 

That said, Perine's previous Bengals stint found his receiving role grow each year. His receptions per game for the three full Cincinnati seasons went:

• 2020: 0.7
• 2021: 1.7
• 2022: 2.4

All three of those campaigns coincided with Joe Mixon, whose receptions per game for the same span went:

• 3.5 (played just six games)
• 2.6 (16 games)
• 4.3 (14 games)

Despite missing three games and sharing some work with Perine, Mixon still collected the fifth-most receptions among RBs in 2022, their last season together in Cincinnati.

The Bengals remain atop the league in pass lean, so there should be plenty of volume to treat this year's starter (Brown) and the third-down guy.

Perine's role will be worth watching as we get into the season, but it doesn't look like a reason to worry about Brown at cost. In fact, we list Brown as a slightly positive value by consensus ADP.

If you're considering grabbing Perine in a draft ... don't. Even a Brown injury likely wouldn't deliver enough of a playing-time boost to make him fantasy relevant.

Other Winners & Losers

Thursday night's opener also found rookie RB Tahj Brooks as the clear lead runner for the second team. Barring any changes through August, that should position Brooks as the handcuff to Brown. (Though we don't generally advise striving to handcuff your RB starters in drafts.)