Early hits: Young Malone runs vet route for TD; Peerman back

Ever since they drafted Josh Malone, the Bengals eyed a roster spot for him.This is one of the seven reasons the Bengals want to keep seven wide receivers:

Josh Malone, the Bengals rookie who was born the same month as Paul Brown Stadium, is staring at a third down from the Tampa Bay 8 in his first NFL game Friday night. He sees the safety playing low and figures the Buccaneers have decided to defend his 4.4-second 40-yard dash with man-to-man coverage. Instead of trying to run past the coverage, Malone runs the route called.

And that’s a big deal in the receivers room.

“I challenge them all the time,” said wide receivers coach James Urban before Monday’s practice. “Do you have the intestinal…