Bengals vs. Lions Preseason Week 1 INSTANT REACTION
The Cincinnati Bengals began the preseason at home against the Detroit Lions. The final score doesn't matter but what we saw absolutely does. John Sheeran goes over Joe Burrow's under center work, several debuts from rookies including Cashius Howell, and much more.
Video Transcript
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It's been a minute since we've done one of these, but when it is the first actual Bengals game of 2026, we're gonna hit you with an instant reaction to the Bengals 16 to 14 nail-biter, close call, whatever you want to say.
Dan Campbell is a maniac, and he made this game pretty close with his decision to go onside kick, and a great recovery from rookie undrafted wide receiver Noah Thomas to essentially seal the game.
And then Russ Yeast, the guy that no one really knows about in the safety room, sealed it off with a game-winning interception.
Bengals win 16-14 to open up the preseason, but no one really cares about the final score of the preseason.
A win is a win.
I'm sure Zach Taylor and everyone is gonna celebrate that in the locker room.
What we care about is what we saw on the field, not just from the backups that played the majority of the game, but also the starters who played the first two drives of the game.
Tee Higgins actually teased it in this, like, little preseason video ran by the team's social media account about how the offense was gonna be out there for just two drives, and that was also the case with the defense as well, at least for some of the def- the defensive starters.
There were a handful of guys that were not out there for the second series.
But I want to go just instant reactions all throughout the roster, what I saw.
We're gonna start really at the quarterback position because what we were gonna see from Joe Burrow, I think we all kind of assumed that this is where it was going.
It felt like a different sort of off-season with all this under center stuff.
We've always kind of seen this teased in the early parts of the off-season in the, in OTAs and mini camp when they're really repping this under center play action stuff, and they're ripping these balls down the field from these alignments that we don't really see in the regular season.
And it always kind of tails off once we get to the preseason.
We don't really see it repped at that point.
The Bengals just stick to their bread and butter shotgun stuff on offense.
That wasn't the case this game.
It was everything that we've seen from training camp realized on an actual field against a different opponent for the first time.
The Bengals ran six dropbacks for Joe Burrow.
Half of them were under center.
Two of them were play action dropbacks.
One of them he ended up getting pressured on.
One of them he did connect with Ja'Marr Chase over the middle.
It was a confirmation, I guess, to see that work from the entire, the entirety of the off-season and also training camp translate into the preseason.
And it's just really confirmation in my eyes that this is not going away.
They are going to continue repping this until they get a lot more comfortable with it.
And I think what we saw tonight was the result of all of that rust still being a part of what they're doing with these concepts, with, with this part of the playbook that, again, is not something that the Bengals are too comfortable running compared to what we know them to be successful at.
So there were a couple of times in which, yeah, like I, I thought Burrow should have gotten the ball out a little bit quicker on a couple of those plays.
I, I think the sack in which, the second year, sixth-round pick, I believe his name was, Amata, A- Amata, I can't remember his last name, but an, an Egyptian guy, like a great story, this, this great, dude from the Lions.
He ended up getting a sack on, like, a little delayed stunt.
Offensive line kind of, I think, miscommunicated for the Bengals, and I think Burrow sh- probably should've gotten that ball out.
But it wasn't great seeing Burrow get sacked and then Orlando Brown get beat, across the edge.
And we're gonna get, get to some of these clips here in a couple seconds just to let you know what I'm talking about if you need a refresher.
But was Joe Burrow out there for ab- about six dropbacks.
He completed five of his passes for about 39 yards, including a nice deep crosser to Ja'Marr Chase on the first drive of the game.
And yeah, it was a bit shaky on offense, but I also think that it goes beyond just the pass game, right?
It goes to how this under center run game looks as well with Chase Brown leading the charge.
Notice Mazi Pahor and his one carry from under center g- it got seven yards.
It wasn't a lot of explosion from Chase Brown in terms of just getting yards past the line of scrimmage.
He ended up getting 16 yards on just five carries, but that matters just as much as to how comfortable Burrow looks when going under center as well because defenses are only going to respect h- the, the Bengals lining up under center and not just pin their ears back and, you know, me- mess, mess up protection schemes for the Bengals offense when they're trying to get go, go in those concepts if they respect the run game, right?
The Bengals need to be able to establish consistency running the ball from under center.
That's the only way that that play action, those play action schemes from under center are gonna work, and it allows Burrow to get some time to let some of these plays develop down the field.
Because I feel like that was also an issue with the, the, the, the sack that Burrow took.
It looked like it was a coverage sack because they had two vertical routes going down the field, and there wasn't really a checkdown or, like, an outlet for Burrow to get the ball out, quickly once he realized the pressure was in his face.
The, the protection needs to hold up in order for Burrow to let those routes develop down the field.
It wasn't necessarily the case with the other hit that Burrow took, which Orlando Brown got beaten around the edge, and we're gonna get to that actually here.
Just, just so you know what I'm talking about.
And then closes it.
Once you get that deep, you mentioned O'Neal, you'll see him here at the bottom.
Just gets around Orlando Brown with a little speed and then closes it.
Once you get that deep, you mentioned O'Neal, you'll see him here at the bottom.
Just gets around Orlando Brown- As you can see, I mean, it was a n- not a great set from Orlando Brown Jr. At, at the beginning.
I think he kind of caught off guard and then his footwork is just all over the place, right?
He's just, he's at this point just recovering.
He's completely lost half man relationship.
Ne- ne- never really gets a clean punch with his hands anywhere near where he needs to.
Again, so I believe his name is Eric O'Neal, the, the Lions edge rusher, but good bend from O'Neal as well.
And again, you never like to see Burrow get hit like that in the preseason or just at all in general.
This was obviously the last time Burrow got hit in this game, and he ended up holding his arm a little bit, but I don't think Burrow got hurt at all.
But again- Like, you don't want to see this from Orlando Brown Jr.
There's a lot of concerns about Orlando Brown Jr. From this game.
I know a lot of people are just kind of done with him at this point because we have seen this from time to time.
And yeah, that's true.
Like, Brown has been here for three years.
His past production, past protection has never been, like, the cleanest.
But the thing with him is that he always ends up figuring it out by the end of the season.
And this was definitely the case in 2024 when he was having what looked to be his best year yet with the Bengals.
And it just never really, it, it didn't translate to a full year because he got injured, and he ended up suffering, like, a knee injury halfway into the year.
But he still finished the year strong.
And that was also the case last year in which, yeah, like, things got s- you know, started off on a, on a shaky start at the beginning of the season, and then the offensive line really solidified at, you know, towards the end of the year.
And that included Orlando Brown Jr. Having a really strong stretch of games, particularly in pass protection.
So again, like, th- this is never, like Y- you don't want to see this.
This doesn't invoke a lot of confidence in the team's starting left tackle, especially with Joe Burrow at quarterback.
But again, I, this is the preseason.
This is a bad rep.
He's, he recognizes that.
He's gonna go back to the tape and work on it.
We've seen Orlando Brown Jr. Struggle at times, and we've always seen him k- kind of come back.
So I'm not giving up on Orlando Brown Jr. After just one bad rep in the preseason.
Again, th- this is stuff that we've seen before, and he's typically been able to find his way back from it.
But I want to get to more of some of the highlights and some of the plays that we saw.
I also want to get to some of the rookies, right?
Because this was really a game in which the rookies really, showed why, like, they, they're receiving a lot of hype out of training camp.
And I think a lot of the confidence that Zac Taylor has been showing in them and talking about them in their, in their, progression during training camp, but this is the first time we've seen them on the field for the Bengals.
So Cassius Howell had a really good game.
His first pressure here was kind of like this ghost move where, when he bends around the edge against the Lions' left tackle, and he kind of forces the throw in which DJ Ivy breaks it up for a fourth down stop.
But again, it's just that stop, start, and then flashing the hands, dipping under the punch.
Again, just getting there to that landmark in that time, in that fashion with just a- a- as few steps as, as he took.
From a two-point stance, this is really promising stuff.
Again, it's second-stringers is, is, you know, the level of competition that Howell has been going up against for the majority of training camp.
But you want to see those traits, you want to see those qualities, and some of that college tape that he showed, you want to see that translate, and that's what we saw on this rep. And he even had a better rep, in my opinion, in which he ends up beating Larry Borom, who is a very experienced left tackle, now a backup for the Lions at left tackle.
Look at the spin move, though.
And I love the way he just sets it up, too.
Y- y- you can see him, like, going back inside, maybe setting up a bull, and then planting that inside foot, and then going back to the outside, setting up maybe, you know, a rip move to the outside or maybe trying to bend around the corner.
Hits him with the spin.
He's all over the place.
Chris Jenkins ends up getting there first for the sack.
And it was a good game from Chris Jenkins, who played a lot in this game when it, when up against, you know, the Lions' second and third stringers.
So he was expected to play well, and he did, but this is really promising stuff from Cassius Howell, who was just one of many rookies I thought that really stepped up for the Bengals today, including, I want to say, both Colby Young and Brian Parker, I thought, checked some boxes today.
This is one of the better reps from Bri- from Brian Parker, who's the left guard here, going up against number 94 for the Lions.
Straight bull rush, sits down, anchors well, allows Joe Flacco to deliver a pass to the other rookie who's been really stepping up in training camp, Colby Young.
We had a couple interceptions this game.
He- I know he dropped the first one that went his way, but it was a solid day from Colby Young.
It was interesting to note how you had, you know, y- you had Colby Young, Mitchell Tinsley, and, Andre Osikwa still out there for the second team.
They're all on the field, sharing the field at the same time, and I think it's really important that all three of those guys take reps at, at all three wide receiver alignments.
It's gonna be important for all of them to know the, the language and, and the release packages and the route concepts from all those alignments, because those three right now are the three behind Ja'Marr Chase and Teagan.
So if any of them goes down, their depth is gonna be relied upon.
But also, it's just figuring out which of them are going to be the best, you know, first receiver off the bench when the Bengals are in 12 personnel, and obviously when they only have two receivers on the, on the field.
When they're 11 personnel, it's still gonna be Andre Osikwa who's gonna be out there for the majority of the time.
But that's why Colby Young is getting these opportunities to see if he can push Yoshi for some of the snaps.
And Mitchell Tinsley is obviously still a well-known commodity after what he did last year.
So it's a pretty tight three-way battle, I would say, between those three guys, and it was interesting to see all three of them take the field, t- together.
I thought at running back, you know, s- again, like, Brown and Pye Ryan were, were fine.
Taj Brooks didn't really get his chance to explode, a- in some of these, like He, he was expected to get, to, to get the ball a lot in this game, but he didn't really get a lot of room to, you know, go past the second level or anything like that, so w- not a lot of takeaways from me there.
For the rest of the offensive line, I thought Cody Ford was fine.
He was rotating between left and right tackle, along with Andrew Coker, who has been the second team, right tackle for the most part while Cody Ford has been at left tackle.
But it was interesting to see them switch sides.
I think it's a true battle right now between who's gonna be the swing tackle, and because Cody Ford already took a pay cut this off-season, not exactly the most secured guy on the roster.
Coker is a guy who's been on the practice squad, and, you know, he's played in the preseason.
He's mostly been a right tackle, but I think they were giving him a chance to see what he can do at left tackle as well.
I want to get to some comments here.
Let's just start.
Yeah.
I, I agree, Mr.
Whisper.
Cassius looks fast and strong.
He tested really well out of Texas A&M, and again, like, you don't win SEC Player of the Year without having some athleticism to you.
It's great that he came into the NFL with all of these pass rushing moves in his arsenal, and we saw a lot of them in this game.
He just looked explosive.
He looked strong out there for his size.
So that was really, really, it was really promising to see.
JM Bond, "John, did Foskey really get injured?"
Yeah, it looked like he got shaken up, like either with a lower leg or maybe with an ankle injury.
He was able to walk off the field.
This happened really late in the game.
Isaiah Foskey has been taking a lot of snaps behind Shaquem Stewart with the second team defense, but he was out there really late in the fourth quarter with the, with the third stringers.
So we'll have to see, any update with that from, Zach Taylor.
I did wanna get to Landon Robinson next, and I wanna share some clips of, of his because he was just as dominant in my opinion against, a l- all, all the third stringers and everything like that.
But he had a, a couple of wins, particularly just with his swim move, which seemed to be what he was really relying on in this game.
This was the first one that, that we saw from him, and I'll just blow this up here as much as I can.
But again, just swimming around the guard, drawing the holding call, you know, pressure got into the face of, I believe this is Altmyer who was back there for the, for the Lions as the, their backup quarterback.
But then we saw that again, I believe later in the game.
Here he is on a little tackle for loss with Swayze Bozeman.
Swayze Bozeman, interestingly enough, was the second team linebacker along with Oren Brooks, Oren Burks, excuse me.
And that was interesting to me because I figured that either Joe Giles-Harris or Shaka Hayward was gonna be the second team linebacker, but seems like those guys are, are just entrenched for special teams like Oren Burks.
But, Swayze Bozeman obviously, you know, was the, the newest linebacker of this group.
He was signed back in May, or he was, he was claimed off of waivers, and he was like the only veteran addition at, in this linebacker room.
So he, I guess is number four on the depth chart, you know, right behind Oren Burks and makes a good tackle for loss.
But again, I wanna focus on Landon, Landon Robinson here, who's circled, thanks courtesy of Joe Goodberry.
Again, swimming around the guard, getting up field, meeting there at the point of attack.
Obviously, Bozeman makes the play first, but Robinson just being there in general off of that one move that he was really relying on, that was promising to see, and he ended up getting like another pressure, in the, in the backfield as well.
I did skip over tight end.
I didn't mean to do that because Jack Endries, have a day young, young, young blood.
Seventh round pick, claiming that the, the, the entire NFL's gonna pay for passing him up, gets the first touchdown of the Bengals season, along with a couple more receptions, including a lot of forced missed tackles on this play alone.
There's one, there's two, there's three.
Get some yards after the catch, man.
Really hope this video doesn't get demonetized for showing these clips.
But anyways, really good performance from Jack Endries, who is in an interesting spot because I don't really know what this tight end room looks like from a depth chart perspective and how it's going to evolve as the preseason goes.
I feel very comfortable saying that, you know, you, you have your top three Endries, Sample, Mike Esekie, and who am I, who am I missing out?
E- Eric Gall, and, and then you have Endries, Hudson, and Cam Griney kind of all filling in, going down the line from like four through six.
Does Endries It, he really needs to show his- himself as a blocker I, I really feel like in order to make this team and, you know, he had some promising work in that regard today.
I think the Bengals wanted to give him some reps. Inline blocking, getting to the second level, even as a lead blocker, he had a couple of nice reps in that regard as well, so that was promising to see.
That's how he's gonna show his most value.
I think we all knew that he was a, a promising receiver coming out of Texas.
He had that production in from Cal as well, but how he shows and how he progresses as a blocker is what's really going to separate him from the likes of Hudson, who's probably his biggest competition right now.
I, I think they still trust Tanner Hudson almost to a fault because he just continues to show up in the opportunities that he's given, but Endries I think has the higher floor.
He's obviously a lot more athletic and younger, and performances like today, that's only gonna help him, you know, make his case for the roster.
We'll see if it continues as the preseason goes along, but how he blocks and how he shows up in that phase of the game I think is gonna be even more important because they know who he is as, as a receiver.
Can he continue to grow and progress as a blocker?
That is what's gonna get him the most value.
Cody Bias is asking, "How do you feel about Braylon Lux?"
He did have a nice tackle for loss, or at least a tackle at the line of scrimmage coming off of like a blitz at the slot cornerback.
I thought he would be more in the mix to either be with the second team or potentially with the starters.
He was taking first team reps now and then during like mini camp earlier in the off-season, and I thought that could have led to a three-way battle at slot cornerback, but that's not the case.
This is clearly Jalen Davis' job to lose, and then Jahsir Taylor got the start, as both Dax Hill and Jalen Davis did not play in this game due to injuries.
So right now, looks like Braylon Lux is firmly number three in the nickel battle, and it's just really tough to get out of that hole without, you know, obviously unfortunate injuries happening in front of him or Jahsir Taylor just playing like he doesn't belong and I didn't really see any, notice anything bad with Taylor in this game.
So Lux is fine.
Like I like him.
I think he's pretty much destined for the practice squad at this point unless, you know, something miraculous happens in the rest of the preseason.
Let's see here.
Luke Craig wrote, "Kolby needs more reps, has potential, and Jack Endries looks solid.
Landon Robinson looks, also look really good."
Again, like this was really, like you, you started to think about the themes of this game and beyond just, you know, Burrow and the other center stuff, this was the game for the rookies.
I, I thought you saw promises from basically every single draft pick in this game.
Cassius Howell, really prominent pass rusher already, at least, you know, relative to his competition.
Kolby Young, you know, you, you keep feeding him, he's gonna keep catching the ball, right?
After that one drop, I think he, I, I think he showed a lot of improvement and a lot of growth there.
Connor Lueders didn't play in this game because they're, he's still working back from his knee injury.
He's been practicing training camp.
He's never been on an injury list as of yet.
But both him and Eric Gall, you know, guys coming off of major surgeries and injuries, they wanted to give him, some more time.
But then you had Brian Parker, again, I thought played really well, made some key blocks You know, getting to the second level, getting out after linebackers and just holding up in pass protection.
He did lose a couple of times, but I thought his recovery was really solid in pass protection as well.
So Brian Parker, I was really excited to see him, take some reps here because I haven't really heard about him.
You know, I haven't-- didn't really see a lot about him in training camp, so I was really pleased with what I saw from him.
And then again, injuries, we know he's a good receiver.
He can generate yards after the catch.
That's gonna be important as well.
So yeah, it was a really strong night I think for all the rookies involved.
And I, I think I'll, I think I'm gonna end with this point because we've already been going for 20 minutes here, and we're not gonna keep you guys too long.
It's already pretty late, and thank you for everyone who's tuning in.
We have over, like, 400 live viewers at this moment.
This is the first time we've done a live stream in a, in a handful of months, so I appreciate all of you guys, checking in for this instant reaction.
I did, I did wanna end on just feeling a positive that I haven't really felt in a while watching the Bengals in the preseason, and I feel like a lot of people can attest to this.
It's such a blessing when you're watching the second team offense.
Even if it doesn't result in a touchdown, the offense just functions, and that just hasn't been the case with Brandon Allen, you know, Ryan Finley, Jake Browning, Trevor Siemian, whoever the backups have been in the Joe Burrow era.
Like, Joe Flacco is just-- obviously he's leaps and bounds better than any of those guys, but then to see, like, again, like, a drive just move and progress normally without these procedural errors, without, you know, this erratic quarterback play.
Like, last year it was freaking Des Ridder and Jake Browning, you know, squaring off in the preseason, and yeah, like, there were some flashes here and there, but it just, it, it almost looked unprofessional at some point, and you just couldn't really evaluate the rest of the offense.
You couldn't evaluate the offensive line properly because the quarterback wasn't getting the ball out on time, or he was just really erratic in the pocket.
You couldn't evaluate the receivers 'cause the ball was, just wasn't getting to the receivers because the quarterback just wasn't accurate.
It's such a blessing with Flacco, and Josh Johnson to an extent.
Having these guys who are a combined 81 years old, you can now really feel like you can confidently evaluate the rest of the offense because the quarterbacks are not just crapping their pants against second-stringers in this environment.
And I feel like that's such an advantage for all evaluation purposes, and I think it's gonna make the coaches' jobs a lot easier, knowing that they can trust whoever is under center after Burrow leaves the game for, you know, basically the rest of the game, because Sean Clifford only played, I believe, a drive in this, on, on this night.
It was at, it was at the very end.
So this is Joe Flacco and Josh Johnson's time, and they're gonna keep the offense afloat.
Again, it's not gonna result in these high-scoring affairs necessarily, but you know, it was nice to see just in a, like, in a, a somewhat effective offense because the quarterback just, you know, wasn't too small for the moment, I guess.
And maybe that's just me being a sicko and watching too much preseason and just having all this in my mind but, I, I've seen terrible quarterback play for the Bengals when the, the starter's not out there, and it was just good to see that the decision to bring back Flacco and also sign Josh Johnson, it's at least paying off.
For some of these guys that need these reps, it's helpful when Colby Young gets accurate passes thrown to him so that we can continue the evaluation of how he does against, you know, other guys.
Dante Myers, a guy we haven't really talked about, you know, he looked w- he looked really fast out there.
He looked like he had another gear compared to anyone else playing on the field for the Lions, so that was really promising to see as well.
And again, I thought the Bengals did a good job of scheming up touches for him.
He obvio-- the first touch that he got that wasn't a punt return, it was just a jet sweep reversal, so it was good to see his explosion and his acceleration on display as well.
Again, it's, it's, it's nice knowing that that's gonna be the case for the rest of the preseason.
We got two more games to go.
The next one is gonna be Saturday night against the Chicago Bears.
Before then, the Bears and the Bengals are gonna have a joint practice in the middle of next week.
We will cover that here on the channel as well.
And then it'll cap off against the Philadelphia Eagles on Friday, August 28th.
Final cuts will be right after that, and just like that, the preseason will be over before you know it.
But it was good to get A win is a win, right?
It, it's good for the players to experience that as well.
They worked for the last two weeks for this game, and there's gonna be even more coming down the pipe for the next two weeks.
But until then, I'm John Scheerer of A to Z Sports Cincinnati.
This is A to Z Sports Cincinnati.
Check back here on the channel for all your Bengals news, analysis, and more.
We'll see you soon
