Bengals 2025 Roster Breakdown: Tahj Brooks makes Cincinnati confident in running back depth

Originally posted on A to Z Sports | By John Sheeran | Last updated Aug 13, 2025 3:12 PM ET

Bengals roster breakdown is back! During the 99 days leading up to Cincinnati’s regular season opener against the Cleveland Browns, the player with the matching jersey number as days remaining will become the day’s highlighted player.

25 days remain until the Bengals’ first game of the 2025 season, rounding out the running back room with No. 25 Tahj Brooks.

Tahj Brooks

Age: 23
Year: 1st
Position: Running back
College: Texas Texch
Previous Teams: None
Jersey Number: 25

Brooks enters his first season in the NFL and with the Bengals after being drafted 193rd overall in the sixth round of the 2022 NFL Draft. He spent five years at Texas Tech where he played in 56 games (34 starts) going all the way back to his true freshman season in 2020 that was shortened due to COVID-19. He started his first four games as a sophomore in 2021 and led the team with 568 yards. He would lead the Red Raiders in rushing for the next three seasons as well, totaling 4,557 yards on the ground, 45 touchdowns, and 23 100-yard games.

Bengals running backs coach Justin Hill originally recruited Brooks to play for him at Tulsa before being hired by Cincinnati in 2021. Now the two are working together leading up to Brooks' rookie season.

Contract Details

Brooks enters the fist year of his four-year, $4,430,856 rookie contract he signed in May. He's already earned part of his $230,856 signing bonus and will make a base salary of $840,000 this year, totaling $1,070,856 in cash earned this season. When adding on his signing bonus proration of $57,714 to his base salary, his salary cap hit for the year is $897,714.

Roster Outlook

The Bengals let the board fall to them with their last pick in the draft and scooped up Brooks from a deep class of tailbacks. He finished very high in Texas Tech's record books after carrying the ball nearly 900 times, but that usage isn't expected to be replicated in Cincinnati. Not yet, at least.

Brooks can find himself at RB3 on the current depth chart behind starter Chase Brown and third-down back Samaje Perine. Brown and Perine remaining healthy will naturally limit Brooks' opportunities this season, but he should be viewed as the eventual running mate of Brooks next year, if not during this season. He's got more pop than Perine and would likely be tasked with carrying a healthy workload if Brown were to go down.

For now, Cincinnati feels great about its RB depth with Brooks right behind Brown and Perine, but like Brown asserted himself to a larger role in each of the last two seasons, don't think Brooks can't do the same.

Projected role: Reserve running back