Erick All is heading into the 2026 season opener with one thing on his mind: getting through it healthy.
The Bengals tight end has spent the last year away from regular-season action after major knee injuries wiped out his 2025 season, but he says the long layoff isn’t weighing on him as Week 1 approaches. All sat down with Fox19’s Gabi Sorrentino ahead of the opener and made it clear that his focus is simple.
"Individually, just making it out of the season healthy, and really, that's all I care about, to be honest," All said about his top goal this year. "I don't care about anything else. I mean, as long as I'm doing good and we win games, then that's all I really care about."
All’s road back has been a long one. He played 231 snaps as a rookie before tearing his right ACL in Week 9 of the 2024 campaign.
He then spent the entire 2025 season rehabbing. That injury was part of a tougher medical history, too, since he had torn the same ACL in college and complications from the surgery slowed the recovery.
Still, the Bengals tight end says the nerves that usually come with a return like this aren’t really there. He got a small preview of game action in the preseason win over Chicago a couple of weeks ago, and that helped him settle in.
"Not really thinking about it, like now (during the interview), like it kind of gets you, but when you're out there, you kind of forget about that part of it, and you just play," All noted.
That should be good news for Cincinnati, which sees All as a versatile, physical piece who can raise the offense’s ceiling. Zac Taylor has been blunt about the way All plays.
“He’s trying to put his face through somebody’s soul,” Taylor said about the physical tight end.
That edge is part of what the Bengals believe they can lean on Sunday. All said the team is ready to bring that style from the opening whistle.
"We're going to go out there and play our best and try our best to physically dominate," All concluded. "And that's what I really love about our team is that we got a lot of guys that are gritty and want to hit some guys; that's really rare.
There's a lot of guys that aren't really about that, and I feel like we really are. And I'm looking forward to us going out there and showing them, hearing some pads popping.
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Bengals Just Lost One Big Advantage Heading Into Week 1
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Bengals Have A Surprise New Receiver Fans Should Be Watching
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For Bengals fans, the appeal is obvious: Meyers brings a different backstory and a late-blooming resume into a receiver room that always seems to be one injury or one hot streak away from reshaping itself. His arrival comes amid plenty of AFC North movement elsewhere, but Cincinnatis interest is in whether he can turn a surprising roster spot into something more when the games start counting. [Read more 🡒]