This is one of three Green-Ellis fumbles on the season. (US Presswire)

When the Bengals decided to sign BenJarvus Green-Ellis instead of bringing back Cedric Benson, who had gone three-straight seasons with 1,000 yards rushing, some of the reasoning had to do with Green-Ellis’ stability with the ball.

In four years with the Patriots, Green-Ellis had never fumbled.

As ESPN wrote after Green-Ellis signed in Cincinnati (ESPN’s emphasis): “Like [Cedric] Benson, Green-Ellis doesn't catch the ball, he doesn't have extreme burst and he doesn't make many tacklers miss. Unlike Benson, though, BJGE doesn't fumble. Ever. If you are playing a football simulation game and you own Green-Ellis and he fumbles, ask for your money back. In 536 career NFL touches, not only has the Law Firm not lost a fumble, he hasn't fumbled at all. I'm not trying to paint Benson as some hellacious ball-security nightmare, but some fumbles is more than no fumbles.”

And up until this season all of that was true. But as the Cincinnati Enquirer points out, Green-Ellis has fumbled thrice in his past 28 touches, losing two of them. Not only is Green-Ellis fumbling some of the time, it now seems that he’s fumbling all the time.

It might be costing him some job security.

“It’s very uncharacteristic of him. It’s not in his history. It’s not in his DNA. But sometimes they happen,” offensive coordinator Jay Gruden said. “Obviously coach (Jim) Anderson’s on him, we’re on him, he’s on himself and hopefully it doesn’t continue. It can’t continue because obviously he’s a feature back. It can’t continue or he won’t be a feature back.”

More from Gruden: “It’s kind of like when you get the yips in your putting, missing those three-footers. You don’t miss one for four rounds and all of a sudden you miss six in the same round. I think he’s very conscious about it, and he’s working at it. He’s been a dependable guy for the majority of his career, and we’re not going to give up on him. We’re going to assume this is just a fluke and he’ll get through it.”

Though his attempts per game has risen -- in Green-Ellis’ final two seasons with the Patriots, he averaged 12.8 carries per game, and through the first four Bengals contests, he’s rushing the ball 20.5 times per game -- his career yards per carry average has dropped and he’s on pace to score eight touchdowns (he combined for 24 in 2010 and 2011).

At this moment, though, Green-Ellis has bigger problems.

“Obviously there are ball security issues I have to tighten up. It has been terrible the last couple weeks,” Green-Ellis said. “I have to tighten it up especially for us to win games. The No. 1 thing that correlates to losing is turnovers and I have to do a better job.”

Otherwise, the Bengals might try to find somebody else who will.

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