Bengals WR Andrei Iosvias' Career Game - and New Wrinkle - Offers Sign of Life for Struggling Offense

CINCINNATI – The relevance can be debated, but regardless of the timing, the Cincinnati Bengals offense finally showed some signs of life with quarterback Jake Browning at the helm in the fourth quarter Sunday against Detroit.

Reminders of the past showed up in the form of two Ja’Marr Chase’s touchdowns – an insane toe drag on one, a big-play explosive on the other – and a Tee Higgins’ low red-zone score.

But another encouraging sign was something we’ve never seen before.

Andrei Iosivas’ 82 receiving yards were a career high, and his seven targets and five receptions equaled his previous bests.

“Really happy with Drei's play yesterday,” offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher said. “(He) was great after the catch. Made a contested play on the slot fade.”

Of his 82 yards, 26 came after the catch. That was the fourth most by anyone on the team this year behind Chase’s 92 in Week 2 at Jacksonville, Chase’s 34 Sunday and Chase Brown’s 33 last week at Denver.

The slot fade Pitcher referenced was Iosivas’ most impressive play.

It was a 30-yard gain on third and 10 with four minutes left in the game, extending what would be the Bengals’ final touchdown drive.

Browning left the pass a little short and too far inside, forcing Iosivas to make a leaping grab over the shoulders of Avonte Maddox, and then out-wrestle the cornerback for control of the ball as they were going to the ground.

Bengals wide receiver Andrei Iosivas makes a heck of a play on a slot fade against the Lions. pic.twitter.com/1rE7v9zC5F
— Cincinnati Sports Clips (@AllBengals) October 7, 2025

The encouragement surrounding Iosvias’ performance is mixed with the exasperated idea of “where’s that been?”

Despite defenses putting all of their attention on Chase and Higgins, especially after Joe Burrow went down, Iosivas only had two catches for 6 yards through the first four games.

“That’s us. That’s not an Andrei thing,” head coach Zac Taylor said, referring to the play calling. “He has done everything he can to create an opportunity for himself whether it’s run blocking or blocking down the field on scrambles, whether that’s one on one when we were getting both guys doubled yesterday.

“Put them on the same side of the field and let Andrei work one on one,” Taylor added.

That’s what happened on the slot fade. Chase and Higgins were on the left side of the formation, and Iosvias was inside of tight end Mike Gesicki on the right.

It was the only reception Iosivas’ five where he was on the opposite side of the formation from the team’s big two receivers.

So expect to see more of that moving forward.

“Drei is about all the right stuff, doesn't say anything,” Pitcher said. “I'm sure there's parts of Drei that wishes he's had more opportunity than he's had so far this year. I'm sure if I was him, that's how I would feel.

“It's a challenge to get the opportunities to everybody that deserve them, but he proved yesterday that he deserves them,” Pitcher continued. “So definitely we’ve got to find ways to continue to incorporate him.”