During his three seasons with the Chicago Bears, running back Cedric Benson wasn’t often singled out as a player who performed well on the practice field.

But in a week with the Cincinnati Bengals, Benson has apparently made a good impression. Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said he likes the way Benson works and that he thinks Benson will have a growing role in the offense as he continues to learn the playbook.

“I will tell you, he’s a very diligent worker and hopefully he’ll continue to be a diligent learner at what he has to do so that we become more comfortable with those things.”

Those things mostly revolve around the passing game, including both running routes and picking up blitzes.

“The natural part of carrying the football — that’s the easy part,” Lewis said. “It’s the other things that come with it that tax you a little bit more and can be just as important.”

If he can learn those things, Benson may be the starter soon. In his Bengals debut on Sunday, Benson had 10 carries for 30 yards. An average of 3.0 yards per carry isn’t very good, but it’s better than the 2.8 yards per carry that Bengals starter Chris Perry is averaging, and Perry has already fumbled five times this season — which is one more fumble than Benson has in his entire career.