The Bengals are moving into their normal game-week rhythm with a lot of their key pieces trending in the right direction.
Zac Taylor said he’ll let the first injury report of the week carry most of the load, but he did offer an update on several players working their way back: Tee Higgins, who is dealing with a heel issue, Ja’Marr Chase, who has a knee injury, Dax Hill, who is recovering from a soft-tissue injury, and Shemar Stewart, who is coming back from a knee injury.
If nothing changes over the next three reports, that group should be available this week. That’s a big development as Cincinnati heads into its season opener Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, with the Bengals set to wear their all orange uniforms.
Taylor said the team will keep easing those players along day by day.
"Yes, they'll continue to do more and more every day. But I like to pace their on.
Shemar will keep working towards that," Taylor said before discussing Hill. "Yeah.
So I won't make any predictions on how it's going to end up this week for him. But I think he's feeling a lot better every single day.
Monday felt good, and we'll just progress them this week and see where it ends up.
"He's (Hill) feeling really good too. I've loved how he's come back and just attacked the process coming off the injury.
Really like his demeanor right now. I've got a lot of confidence in Dax Hill, a lot of respect for Dax, and so I'm excited that we've got him back in the mix here."
Taylor also had praise for Dexter Lawrence, who has been a major presence throughout training camp.
"He just affects about every play he's got, and it gives other people a great opportunity for one-on-ones they got to take advantage of, and they have," Taylor said on Monday about Lawrence. "And so it just really opens up the other 10 guys on defense, and then finding ways to get him isolated as well, and not just making him eat up double teams all day."
Lawrence is one of the Bengals’ seven captains, part of a locker room that Joe Burrow and others have described as as close as any the team has had this decade.
For Taylor, the focus now is turning all that offseason confidence into something real on the field.
"I just think we've got a lot of high-level players who believe in what we're doing," Taylor noted. "They've put in the work.
Number one, it's one thing to just talk and declare expectations. It's another thing for the work ethic to match that conversation.
And I've seen that work ethic match the conversation for our guys. They have a lot of confidence.
A lot of guys have been there, done that. Know what it's supposed to look like to be on a championship-caliber team."
Cincinnati has two intense practices today and tomorrow, followed by a lighter session on Friday.
In Other News...
Landon Robinson Is Forcing His Way Into The Bengals D-Line Fight
Landon Robinson arrived in Cincinnati with the kind of draft pedigree that usually means a player has to make noise the hard way, but he has done exactly that through training camp and the preseason. The Bengals took the defensive tackle in the seventh round, yet he has already worked his way into the conversation with a mix of versatility and steady impact, showing enough to get noticed beyond the usual rookie buzz.
For a Cincinnati defensive line group that has plenty of competition, Robinsons rise is the interesting part. Analysts have pointed to him as a player who can help in multiple phases, whether as a pass rusher or against the run, and he even landed on a list of promising rookies projected to become future draft hits despite being the lowest-drafted name on it. The real question now is how much of that momentum he can carry once the games start to count. [Read more 🡒]
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Still, there is a little unease attached to the comeback. All did deal with some knee soreness during training camp, so the Bengals will be watching closely to see how he responds as the workload ramps up and the season approaches. For a player coming off such a serious injury history, getting back on the field is only part of the story, and Cincinnati will want to know whether the knee holds up once the hits start coming for real. [Read more 🡒]
Bengals Newcomer Is Already Emerging As A Defensive Voice
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For Cincinnati, that kind of early buy-in matters as much as any play on the field. In his first interview as a captain, Cook talked about his commitment to leading and being a dependable presence on defense, a notable development for a newcomer still learning the ropes in a new locker room. If the Bengals were looking for a player who could bring both experience and authority to a changing unit, Cook appears to be wasting no time making his case. [Read more 🡒]