Erick All Jr. is the kind of player who can slip out of the conversation fast when he’s been off the field long enough.
That’s exactly where he sits for the Bengals right now, but ESPN’s Ben Solak thinks the tight end could force his way back into the spotlight this season. In a new article on Wednesday, Solak named All as his pick to break out for Cincinnati, and he went a step further by suggesting All could end up leading the team’s tight end room in snaps.
“If he's healthy, I expect him to lead the TE room in snaps and spring some big plays,” Solak writes.
It’s a bold call, but not a random one. All was Cincinnati’s fourth-round pick in 2024, and after logging just 231 snaps as a rookie, he tore his right ACL in Week 9 and missed the entire 2025 season while rehabbing. The recovery was even more complicated because he had torn the same ACL in college, and that surgery stretched out the timeline.
Even with that injury history, Solak sees a path for All to matter because the Bengals clearly still value him. Coach Zac Taylor made that plain with a memorable line: "With the word physical in the dictionary is a picture of Erick All, trying to put his face through somebody's soul."
There’s also a football reason All remains in the mix. As a rookie, he outsnapped incumbent Mike Gesicki in five of the nine games he played, and he offers a blocking presence Cincinnati can use in its rushing attack.
So the picture is pretty clear: the health questions are real, the availability questions are real, and the uncertainty is still hanging over him. But if All stays on the field, he still has a chance to become a real factor for the Bengals.
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