During the league’s regular season, each NFL team carries a grand total of 53 players on their active roster, and has a reserved list of eight players that is designated for the practice squad. While 53 players can be on the active roster during the week, only 45 players can actually suit up for the game.

The “dressed” roster is made up of several different positions on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball. The main positions on the defensive side of the ball are linebacker, defensive ends, defensive tackles, cornerbacks and safeties. On the offensive side of the ball, there are offensive lineman, tight ends, wide receivers, running backs and quarterbacks. There is also what is called special teams. The special teams are made up of place kickers, punters, as well as punt returners and kick returners. During the game, only eleven players can be in the game at any one time for each team.

Depending on the team’s approach and franchise’s plan of attack, each roster can be filled out very differently. For the most part, the standards for all teams are three quarterbacks, one punter and one kicker. Quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers are considered “skill position” players and are generally the most important positions on a team looking to win.http://www.bengals.com/team/roster.html

While there have been talented combinations over the course of the Cincinnati Bengals franchise history including a more recent tandem of wide receivers Chad Johnson (now Chad Ochocinco) and T.J. Houshmandzadeh, the best combination ever to play for the Bengals has to be running backs James Brooks and Ickey Woods.

During the run to the 1989 Super Bowl, James Brookshttp://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/B/BrooJa00.htm and Ickey Woodshttp://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/W/WoodIc00.htm combined to rush for almost 2,000 yards and 21 touchdowns in what was considered an improbable run to the playoffs when the Bengals went 12-4 in the regular season. That Bengals team lost to the San Francisco 49ers 20-16 in the Super Bowl thanks to a last minute touchdown pass from Joe Montana to John Taylor with less than a minute to go in the game.http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/198901220cin.htm

Despite a stellar 1988 regular season, the combination of Woods and Brooks was a one year phenomenon. Woods was injured in the second game of the 1989 regular season and never realized the success he had in his rookie year. Brooks rushed for over 1,000 yards in 1989 and 1990 the Bengals themselves fell back into mediocrity.