The Bengals Make Their Final Push Before Preseason Begins
John Sheeran breaks down the biggest Bengals training camp developments as Cincinnati wraps up practice and turns its attention to Thursday night's preseason game. From notable absences to players making a late push for bigger roles, there was plenty to watch during the team's final tune-up.
Video Transcript
The Bengals had their final training camp practice before the preseason begins, and now we know for sure who is not going to play Thursday night.
I'm John Shearman of A to Z Sports Cincinnati.
This is A to Z Sports Cincinnati, covering your Cincinnati Bengals now throughout the 2026 preseason.
If you're a resident in the Cincinnati or Northern Kentucky area, you would have known that about 10:30 this morning, it looked like the world was gonna end.
And that's exactly what Zac Taylor thought as well when he saw some very, you know, ominous storm clouds approaching the practice fields outside of Paycor Stadium.
So the Bengals finished up their last practice before the preseason, mostly indoors in their indoor practice facility.
And we saw a lot of players who are expected to be big contributors for this year's team not participate.
Officially, you had starting safety Brian Cook, starting cornerback Dax Hill, starting defensive tackle BJ Hill, and key backups Cassius Howe at defensive end, Takaryo Davis at cornerback, and Shamar Stewart at defensive end not participating in practice.
You also saw, I believe DJ Turner was not out there for some of the team drills.
Dexter Lawrence I think only did individual work as well, along with Ted Karras as well on, at center on offense.
Now, for context as to why these guys did not practice, it seems like Brian Cook is dealing with some sort of injury that he first suffered last Friday during the team's one and only practice inside Paycor Stadium.
I believe it was on one of those deep passes from Joe Burrow that he kinda came up a little bit lame.
So they're just taking it easy with both him and Dax Hill.
Now, Dax has been dealing with some sort of a leg injury going back to last week.
He's been limited in practice.
He's even been out for most practices since then.
Zac Taylor confirmed that neither Cook nor Hill will play in Thursday's preseason opener against the Lions, and that they're just gonna get them through this week, see where they are next week.
Now, we all know about BJ Hill and Shamar Stewart.
BJ Hill is still recovering from a procedure that he had on his foot this off-season.
He's been on the physically unable to perform list since the beginning of camp, but he's been slowly but surely ramping up his work on the rehab field, helmet in hand.
I think he should be back in practice before we know it.
He's not gonna play in Thursday's game, obviously, as he hasn't practiced.
Neither will Shamar Stewart, who suffered his hyperextended knee on the first official practice of training camp.
But he's been seen without a brace.
He's been present for practice in uniform, watching alongside others who are not participating.
So again, neither one of those guys are gonna play.
They're both coming back from injuries.
It seems pretty optimistic that they will both be back, obviously, before the regular season, but I think Hill will be back before Stewart.
I was a bit surprised to see neither Hill or Davis get any reps right before their first preseason game, but it seems like they are also dealing with some minor injuries.
They were just going through maintenance.
Again, they don't wanna push these guys right before a game.
Nonetheless, this is, this is what is equivalent to, like, a Friday practice during the regular season when, before they play on Sunday, right?
It's basically like a half practice.
Oftentimes you get guys only practicing for half the time, taking some time off, making sure that they're well rested before they play on Sunday.
It's basically the same when you're playing on Thursday and it's a Tuesday.
As of right now, we don't know if either of those guys are going to play Thursday, and I'll be disappointed if they don't, because this is a great opportunity for both of them to play some extended time.
I don't think they need it necessarily in order to be as prepared as possible for week one because they've put in some phenomenal work in training camp, and the coaches are going to use that specifically for guys who are already going to make the team as second and third round picks.
There wasn't any controversy as to those guys being on the roster bubble or anything like that.
But it is a bit disappointing that they are dealing with something minor, and it could hold them out of their first ever preseason game.
And if they do play, I expect them to be rather limited, and it's going to give opportunities for others down the depth chart at those positions.
As far as the actual practice went, when the Bengals went indoors, they started unloading some of these move the ball drills in which they were trying to get some long drives in for the starters, and obviously there weren't all, starter players out there for the, the ones.
There were some other players that were in there.
But Jordan Battle was on the field, and he had what looked to be the highlight of the day, in which Joe Burrow was under center, a long developing play action drop back, launching the ball to Ja'Marr Chase down the left sideline.
It was a single high defense with Jordan Battle being the post safety.
He was the furthest back there.
He made a great read on Burrow's throw and made a nice clean interception in front of Chase.
Earlier in the practice, we saw Josh Newton get some time with the starting defense as obviously, you know, Dax Hill and Takaryo Davis weren't out there for practice.
So he got some time with the ones, and he went up against Chase on a third and two in the red zone drills, and he broke up a potential touchdown from Joe Burrow.
And this does sound like the first time we've heard anything relatively positive about Josh Newton in training camp.
Remember back in 2024, you know, he was a great story coming out of college.
He was this hardworking, dedicated player, fifth round pick out of TCU, was a part of a team that almost won a national championship.
Not almost.
They at least went to the national championship, and then they got dog walked by the Georgia Bulldogs.
But there was a lot of hype around Josh Newton when he was first coming into the league with the Bengals.
It was a great story just about him and his upbringing, his nickname Fig, a lot of energy he's always brought to practice, and now he's really on the outside looking in on, at the cornerback room.
He's firmly behind DJ Ivy.
Takaryo Davis is definitely making the team.
There's gonna be two slot guys, with Jalen Davis being one of them.
So there's not a lot of room right now For Josh Newton to make this team.
So the more good plays that he has in training camp, obviously the better his chances of maybe making a surprise.
And, you know, again, like right now they're dealing with injuries at the cornerback room, so that's only gonna give him some more opportunities.
He's definitely someone that I'm gonna be watching very intently on Thursday night, just because we haven't really seen a lot from him in these two weeks of camp.
I think it was also notable to see a couple of the Bengals late round picks get some reps for the first time with the Bengals ones this training camp.
You had Connor Lue taking snaps at center in for Ted Karras, and then you had Landon Robinson at defensive tackle go up against the Bengals starting offensive line for the first time I think I've seen this training camp.
Now, whether it was just for the fact that Ted Karras was getting kind of the day off, or maybe Dexter Lawrence was also not in there, so it wasn't that overwhelming for just the 21-year-old Lue, it was good to see him get those reps because he has been ahead of schedule, at least in my opinion, for when he was coming back from this torn ACL.
Never even being put on the NFI list at the beginning of camp.
He's been there at each and every practice.
Now he's getting some familiarity and working relationship with Joe Burrow.
The Bengals have been very fortunate that Ted Karras has not really missed any time since joining the team back in 2022.
His backup has never really been relied upon in any key situations.
But Lue is the best backup the Bengals have had behind Karras over the last four years, and he is the future of this position.
He's going to be snapping for Joe Burrow before too long.
So that was good to see him get reps with the starters considering he is not going to play in the preseason opener on Thursday.
And you can say the same about tight end Eric Gall.
Both these guys, again, I think are ahead of schedule and they will be very much able to play if needed.
Obviously, Eric Gall is playing week one, but Connor Lue probably won't.
They will be ready for when the regular season begins, but they just wanna take it easy with both these guys, not rush them back any more than they have to.
And finally, when we get to Zac Taylor, he said that the main thing that he wants to see when the starters are out there is just a clean operation.
You know, they've gotten through install, they're really starting to open things up for both sides of the ball right now, and things will change.
The game plan will change a little bit for going up against Detroit specifically, but he has a lot of confidence in both of the starting units just getting through the game without any critical mistakes and any errors because that would be really discouraging to see from the veterans on this team.
You, you expect to see some faults and some errors with the second and third stringers, you know, just under a lot of pressure to make the team.
I mean, and for many of these guys, it's gonna be their first ever time out on an NFL field, but that's what Taylor is looking for.
He is going to play, you know, the stars of the team, Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, Dexter Lawrence.
He mentioned these guys specifically as players that the fans are gonna be able to watch play at least a little bit on Thursday night.
But he just wants a clean operation, get in and get out of the game, and get a lot of these guys who need reps, give them some reps in quarters two through four.
And on a lighter note, a funnier note, Zac Taylor has never thrown a challenge flag for the Bengals.
The Bengals have obviously challenged a lot of plays in Taylor's seven years on the job, but that responsibility has always fallen upon Chief of Coaching Staff Doug Rosfeld.
And if you're a fan of Cincinnati high school sports, you recognize that name because Rosfeld was Moeller's football coach in 2018.
He was the GCL Coach of the Year when the, when Moeller won the conference that season.
But before that, he was the Director of Player Development for the University of Cincinnati for three years, and that time overlapped with Taylor's time as the offense coordinator for the Bearcats in 2016.
Rosfeld has always been beside or right next to Taylor during games, and he's always been in charge of throwing the flag, obviously with Taylor's command.
But now there's a new NFL rule that states that you are now allowed to delegate that responsibility to a member of your sideline crew.
So it used to be that the coaches, the main coach, had to be the one throwing the flags, and now that responsibility can be delegated.
But the Bengals have been doing this really under Taylor for the entirety of his tenure, and he joked to reporters Tuesday saying that maybe the Bengals are gonna get retroactively fined because they've been technically breaking the rules for the last eight years.
But if the Bengals, for whatever God knows what reason, challenge a play on Thursday night, it will still be Doug Rosfeld throwing the challenge flag, again, according to Taylor's command.
Guys, I don't know about you, but I'm really excited to see the Bengals out there on an actual NFL field for the first time since January when that 2025 season that was so disappointing came to an even more disappointing end against the Cleveland Browns.
It's a new year, it's a new season, and we're gonna see a lot of new faces out there for the very first time Thursday night.
We're gonna do a little bit of a preview episode tomorrow with players that I'm gonna be intensely focusing on for the game, and then we're gonna go live right after the game ends on Thursday night to recap what I saw, everything that happened, highlights, standouts, everything that you can imagine, right here on A to Z Sports Cincinnati.
