The Bengals are heading into their Ravens matchup with the kind of injury report teams love to see this deep into the season: mostly clean, with just a few names worth watching.
Kyle Dugger is the main one. The backup safety was still listed with a quad issue, but he practiced Wednesday and is trending toward a return. Zac Taylor said Dugger was week-to-week and added that he made "great progress" over the bye.
Beyond that, Cincinnati’s health picture looks unusually bright. Taylor said there are no other injuries to track outside of the players already on injured reserve. He also said Andrei Iosivas is "making good progress" as he works back from finger surgery.
That matters with the Bengals staring at another division game and the chance to avoid digging a deeper hole. They already lost to the Steelers a few weeks ago, and a 0-2 start in the division would be a tough climb.
Colbie Young also appears close to full strength. Taylor said the young receiver is slated to be near 100% for this game and sounded encouraged by what he saw earlier in the week.
"He's looked as good as he's looked in a long time," Taylor said about Young on Monday. "I think last week he had a good week on what he could handle from a rehab perspective.
So this week to get him back involved, he looked good running around. So I think it's good to finally get him back and feel like he's closer to 100% health."
Cincinnati gets the Ravens on the road this time, and not in primetime. The Bengals also enter the week with the league’s easiest remaining schedule according to ESPN’s FPI.
Taylor said the early bye could help, as long as the team handles the workload the right way over the next few months.
"Not necessarily in the games. No, I mean we're going to do everything we can to win," Taylor said about changing player workloads in an early bye week season.
"Does it change the workload during practice? Potentially.
I think we've done a good job of that so far during the season with some of the guys that are more veteran. So we're never shying away from helping guys during the week that maybe don't need the physical reps, and we need them healthy on Sunday.
"Obviously, strange weeks are coming forward at us, and so we'll do a great job just with the schedule and trying to keep it off those guys as best we can."
The Bengals are aiming for 4-2 this weekend.
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Ja'Marr Chase Finally Opened Up About That Scary Bengals Injury
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He also walked through the leagues concussion protocol and what the recovery week was like before he got back on the field against Miami. Chase said he had to stay away from screens and leaned on reading to pass the time, a small but telling reminder of how carefully these injuries are managed once a player is in the protocol. [Read more 🡒]