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The Jacksonville Jaguars know they will have a full complement of offensive linemen when they ply at Cincinnati on Sunday,

The team announced that left tackle Luke Joeckel has been cleared to play after suffering a concussion last Sunday versus Miami.

According to Jaguars.com, the situation on the offensive line is improved, so now the team can focus on changes being made on the defensive side of the ball, most notably at linebacker.

Joeckel, the Jaguars’ starting left tackle in the first eight games of the season, was listed as probable on the team’s injury report Friday, with all indications he will start when the Jaguars visit the Cincinnati Bengals Sunday.

“I’d be shocked if we didn’t (have Joeckel Sunday),” Head Coach Gus Bradley said as the Jaguars (1-7) prepared to play the Bengals (4-2-1).

Joeckel, the No. 2 overall selection in the 2013 NFL Draft, left a loss to Miami last Sunday with a concussion, and after missing practice Wednesday returned on a limited basis Thursday. He worked full in practice Friday.

“I missed out on Wednesday’s practice, but I’ve done the walkthroughs and all that stuff,” Joeckel said. “I feel good to go. I’ve watched plenty of film, so I’m ready to go.”

The team got some other good news when defensive back Dwayne Gratz was listed as probable for Sunday. His play has been limited throughout the week as elbow and groin issues continue to plague him.

Jeremiah George, signed off the New York Jets’ practice squad September 23, is expected to have an expanded role and could start at middle linebacker. If that happens, J.T. Thomas – who started at middle linebacker last week with starter Paul Posluszny (torn pectoral) having gone on injured reserve – would return to the Otto linebacker spot. Thomas started at Otto Weeks 3-7.

Dekoda Watson, who started at the Otto in Week 8, is questionable with a hamstring injury, with Bradley saying the decision to give George an expanded role was more about George earning an opportunity than anything else.

“He’s caught our attention,” Bradley said. “His speed, his instincts all caught our eye. We were waiting for him to see how well he could pick up the defense. He showed really well last week, then had another good week on top of it. He’s caught our eye.”

Bradley added that Thomas has proven he can play well at the Otto.

In other Jaguars news…

• Cornerback Will Blackmon (finger) and defensive end Andre Branch (groin) missed practice and will be out Sunday. Blackmon is out an extended period and Branch is expected to miss about five more weeks. Neither is expected to make the trip to Cincinnati or to London the week afterward.
• Safety Sherrod Martin is expected to play the nickel Sunday with Blackmon having played there the first eight weeks of the season. It will be Martin’s first extensive playing time since sustaining anterior cruciate ligament and medial collateral ligament injuries in December 2012 while playing with Carolina. Martin, a second-round selection in the 2009 NFL Draft from Troy, started for Carolina in 2010 and 2011. He has played five snaps this season. “When you get your opportunity, you have to step in and capitalize on it,” Martin said. “You just have to put your best foot forward.”

The Jacksonville Jaguars know they will have a full complement of offensive linemen when they ply at Cincinnati on Sunday,

The team announced that left tackle Luke Joeckel has been cleared to play after suffering a concussion last Sunday versus Miami.

According to Jaguars.com, the situation on the offensive line is improved, so now the team can focus on changes being made on the defensive side of the ball, most notably at linebacker.

Joeckel, the Jaguars’ starting left tackle in the first eight games of the season, was listed as probable on the team’s injury report Friday, with all indications he will start when the Jaguars visit the Cincinnati Bengals Sunday.

“I’d be shocked if we didn’t (have Joeckel Sunday),” Head Coach Gus Bradley said as the Jaguars (1-7) prepared to play the Bengals (4-2-1).

Joeckel, the No. 2 overall selection in the 2013 NFL Draft, left a loss to Miami last Sunday with a concussion, and after missing practice Wednesday returned on a limited basis Thursday. He worked full in practice Friday.

“I missed out on Wednesday’s practice, but I’ve done the walkthroughs and all that stuff,” Joeckel said. “I feel good to go. I’ve watched plenty of film, so I’m ready to go.”

The team got some other good news when defensive back Dwayne Gratz was listed as probable for Sunday. His play has been limited throughout the week as elbow and groin issues continue to plague him.

Jeremiah George, signed off the New York Jets’ practice squad September 23, is expected to have an expanded role and could start at middle linebacker. If that happens, J.T. Thomas – who started at middle linebacker last week with starter Paul Posluszny (torn pectoral) having gone on injured reserve – would return to the Otto linebacker spot. Thomas started at Otto Weeks 3-7.

Dekoda Watson, who started at the Otto in Week 8, is questionable with a hamstring injury, with Bradley saying the decision to give George an expanded role was more about George earning an opportunity than anything else.

“He’s caught our attention,” Bradley said. “His speed, his instincts all caught our eye. We were waiting for him to see how well he could pick up the defense. He showed really well last week, then had another good week on top of it. He’s caught our eye.”

Bradley added that Thomas has proven he can play well at the Otto.

In other Jaguars news…

• Cornerback Will Blackmon (finger) and defensive end Andre Branch (groin) missed practice and will be out Sunday. Blackmon is out an extended period and Branch is expected to miss about five more weeks. Neither is expected to make the trip to Cincinnati or to London the week afterward.
• Safety Sherrod Martin is expected to play the nickel Sunday with Blackmon having played there the first eight weeks of the season. It will be Martin’s first extensive playing time since sustaining anterior cruciate ligament and medial collateral ligament injuries in December 2012 while playing with Carolina. Martin, a second-round selection in the 2009 NFL Draft from Troy, started for Carolina in 2010 and 2011. He has played five snaps this season. “When you get your opportunity, you have to step in and capitalize on it,” Martin said. “You just have to put your best foot forward.”

The Cincinnati Bengals are facing a potential problem in the very crowded backfield. Do they unleash Giovani Bernard as the feature back or do they continue to run a "running-back-by commitee" (RBBC) backfield as they did in 2013?

The RBBC backfield certainly worked well for the Bengals last season as BenJarvus Green-Ellis and Bernard shared the ball-carrying duties as they rolled-up a combined 1,451 yard rushing.

Consider the 2013 final statistics for yardage by running backs reveals LeSean McCoy leading the league with 1,607 yards, averaging 5.1 yards-per-carry. Matt Forte was second with 1,339 total yards, averaging 4.6 y-p-c.

The Bengals’ backfield falls in-between first and second with the combined 1,451 yards.

A more telling stat, though, would be Bernard rushed for 695 yards on 170 attempts, which works out to 4.1 y-p-c.

That level of production is on-par with the likes of Marshawn Lynch (4.2 y-p-c), Eddie Lacy and Frank Gore (both 4.1 y-p-c) and Chris Johnson (3.9 y-p-c). All of these backs ran for more than 1,000 yards last season.

Bernard’s carried the ball 170 last season. Bump that number up to 283 (the average number of touches the top five running backs had in 2013) and Bernard would total 1,160 yards. Bernard would have been ninth in the National Football League in rushing in 2013 with those numbers.

Green-Ellis’ numbers fall off because his yard-per-carry average is only 3.4. Bernard is gaining, on average, a half-a-yard more than Green-Ellis. In the ‘game-of-inches’ that football is, this is a mile.

Green-Ellis is also 29-years-old and this is over-the-hill for a running back in the NFL. The shelf life of a running back is five-to-six years. Green-Ellis is beginning to feel the wear-and-tear of the NFL. When Green-Ellis was rushing for the Patriots, he had, respectively, seasons with 4.4, 4.4, 3.7 and 3.9 y-p-c seasons. There is also a quality drop-off in the offensive line that must be taken into consideration since the Patriots have that really good quarterback under-center, you know, he goes by the name of Tom Brady. The Patriots have always invested well in their offensive line.

The Bengals? Not-so-much.

Green-Ellis’ yards-per-carry drop-off could be attributed to that change, but since Bernard was able to average 4.1 y-p-c behind the same o-line, age is a more likely factor.

There is another startling stat that Bernard brings to the table in his case for breakout player in 2014.

Bernard caught the second-most passes for the Bengals last season with 56 and was third on the team in receiving yards with 514.

This type of production puts Bernard in LaDainaian Tomlinson production level. Tomlinson averaged, I say AVERAGED, 289 carries-a-season, 1,244 yards-per-season rushing, 57 receptions-a-season and 433 yard-per-season receiving. Those number include two lackluster seasons with the New York Jets and two seasons which were shortened by injury.

Take out the two season with the Jets and Tomlinson’s numbers are 320 c-p-s, 1,388 y-p-s, 59 r-p-s and 439 y-p-s. A true duel-threat back if ever there was one.

Give Bernard these averages on carries-per-season and his yardage jumps up to 1,312 yards-per-season and his receiving yards jump up to 542 per-season.

Is it premature to call Bernard a re-incarnated Tomlinson? Yes. Is it feasible for the Bengals to utilize Bernard in this manner? Absolutely.

The Bengals just need to decide if that want this Tomlinson-style work horse to carry the offense, or not.Referencing back to Bernard’s days at North Carolina, he is more than capable of carrying this workload. Bernard averaged 211 carries-per-season and 46 receptions-per-season for 1,241 rushing-yards-per-season and 426 receiving-yards-per-season, respectively.

Giovani Bernard is poised and ready for the work load and, deservedly so, the spotlight.