Dax Hill sounded like a player who’s ready to roll into Week 1, even if he’s still managing the aftermath of a soft-tissue injury that lingered through much of training camp.
After Wednesday’s hot practice, Hill told reporters at his locker that he’s in good shape and expects to be available for next Sunday’s matchup with the Buccaneers. He said he’d been careful not to push himself into a bad spot while working back.
"If I didn't feel my best, I wasn't gonna put myself at risk of being a liability out there. So just being smart," Hill said before expanding more on his potential Week 1 role.
"Whatever the coaches want me to do. Us as competitors, we're gonna be out there regardless.
Whether you're 100 or, you know, 75 (%). I have that competitive nature in me, and whatever they have planned for me we'll see.
But I'm optimistic for Game 1."
While Hill is trending toward playing, he wasn’t interested in making his locker-room availability a jumping-off point for contract chatter. He and DJ Turner II are both moving toward new deals in their NFL careers, but there hasn’t been much movement publicly on either front. ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported Wednesday that Cincinnati probably won’t reach an agreement with Turner, and that nothing appears close with Hill either.
Hill shut that line of questioning down quickly.
"I don't want to really talk about that, but hey, I'm out there competing," Hill said.
For Cincinnati, the bigger picture may not get sorted until the 2026 season plays out, with Hill and Turner both in the mix as possible extension candidates. There’s also an Amarius Mims extension on the horizon if his rise continues, and Dexter Lawrence would be significantly underpaid if he delivers to expectation in 2026.
For now, though, Hill says the defense still has the same bite it showed last season. He believes the group carried that energy through camp and hasn’t let it slip.
"I feel like we haven't really lost our edge from last year," Hill noted. "I feel like we ended up on a high note, and it just brought the new guys along, and I feel like we've just been at a high level.
Not really taking a day off; if we have, it was probably just a day. We regrouped the next day and came back and showed out.
So I feel like the entire camp leading up to this first game has been great from top down."
Cincinnati is a little over a week away from Game 1.
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