Cornerback DJ Turner’s status took a step in a positive direction on the Bengals’ Thursday practice report.
Turner was listed as a full participant in practice. He was listed as out of practice on Wednesday due to a heel issue, but that upgrade suggests he should be good to go against the Falcons in Madrid this Sunday.
Turner has started all seven games this season. He has 17 tackles, two forced fumbles and five passes defensed.
Defensive tackle Jonathan Allen (rest) and safety Kyle Dugger (quad) did not participate on Thursday. Safety Jordan Battle (hamstring), defensive tackle B.J. Hill (rest), and defensive end Cedric Johnson (ankle, foot) were limited participants.
Playing in Spain on Sunday, the Falcons held a full practice overseas on Thursday after staging a walk-through on Wednesday.
Notably, running back Brian Robinson (hamstring) remained limited on the report.
Robinson is No. 2 on the team with 211 rushing yards, behind league-leader Bijan Robinson, who has 780.
Linebacker Yasir Abdullah (hamstring) and linebacker Divine Deablo (forearm) were also limited on Thursday.
Defensive back Billy Bowman Jr. (hamstring), receiver Beaux Collins (hip), and offensive tackle Cameron Williams (ankle) were all full participants.
Receiver Zachariah Branch (hamstring) did not practice as he’s already been ruled out for the Week 9 matchup.
A pair of Bengals wide receivers had big games in Week 8, but only one of them could be named the AFC offensive player of the week.
The NFL announced that Tee Higgins was their choice for that award on Wednesday. Higgins had 10 catches for 155 yards and two touchdowns, which gave him the edge over Ja’Marr Chase. Chase finished the 43-36 overtime win with 11 catches for 141 yards and a touchdown.
Higgins’s first score gave the Bengals a 21-13 lead in the third quarter and his second tied the game with 1:17 left to play in regulation.
It is the first time in his career that Higgins has taken weekly honors in the conference.
The Jets signed offensive tackle Blake Freeland off the Bengals’ practice squad, the team announced Tuesday.
In a corresponding move, the Jets placed offensive lineman Max Mitchell on injured reserve. They also released cornerback Tre Brown from injured reserve.
Freeland joined the Bengals’ practice squad after the Colts waived him on Aug. 31. In the preseason, he played 144 offensive snaps over the Colts’ three games.
Freeland, who played collegiately at BYU, was selected by Indianapolis in the fourth round of the 2023 draft. He made nine starts as a rookie, while appearing in 15 total games. In 2024, he appeared in eight games and logged 36 special teams snaps and 23 on offense. Freeland missed the entire 2025 season with a fracture in his right leg.
Mitchell was diagnosed with a concussion during a Week 7 practice, and he has missed the past two games. This season, he has played 22 special teams snaps over the first six weeks. Mitchell, who played collegiately at Louisiana, was selected by the Jets in the fourth round of the 2022 draft and has played 51 games.
Brown went on injured reserve on Aug. 30.
In recent weeks, Simms and I have raised once or twice the question of whether Bears quarterback Caleb Williams belongs in the top tier of NFL franchise quarterbacks.
Based on Monday night’s 34-point performance against a Seahawks defense that held the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes to three points a week earlier, it’s time to render a verdict.
Yes.
The new top four, in our view, are (in no particular order), Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, and Caleb Williams.
Lamar Jackson previously had been the fourth. A lost season due to multiple injuries puts him at No. 5, until he reestablishes himself in 2027. (And there’s no reason to believe he won’t, if he can get and stay healthy.)
For now, Caleb has crashed the party.
In Week 7 at Seattle, Mahomes completed 19 of 33 passes for 165 yards, no touchdowns, and one interception. His passer rating for the game was 58.9. In Week 8 at Seattle, Williams went 24 for 34 for 247 yards, one touchdown, and no picks. Williams also sparked a 39-yard gain on a key third-down backward pass to receiver Khalif Raymond, which set up the score that turned a 20-17 margin into a 27-17 clincher.
And before anyone says Mahomes didn’t have any support in the running game, Chiefs running back Kenneth Walker III and Bears running back D’Andre Swift averaged an identical 2.6 yards per carry against the Seahawks’ defense.
So, yes, Caleb is a top-level NFL quarterback. Despite missing three games with a hamstring injury, his odds to win the NFL MVP award are down to 5-1, behind only Allen, Brock Purdy, and Burrow.
If the Bears keep doing what they did on Monday night — and if they finish the season with the No. 1 seed in the NFC — Williams will get plenty of votes. And he has a real chance to win it.
Even if he’d much rather win the MVP award not for the regular season, but for the Super Bowl.
The Bengals announced that rookie defensive end Cashius Howell had wrist surgery on Monday, but head coach Zac Taylor said he didn’t have a specific timeline for Howell’s return to action.
That timeline got a little clearer on Tuesday. The Bengals announced that Howell has been placed on injured reserve and will have to miss at least four games before he’s able to get back into the lineup.
Howell was a second-round pick this year. He had six tackles, two tackles for loss, a sack and five quarterback hits while playing around 40 percent of the defensive snaps in Cincinnati’s first seven games.
The Bengals have not made a move to fill Howell’s spot on the roster. Myles Murphy, Boye Mafe, Cedric Johnson, and Shemar Stewart are their other defensive ends.
The Bengals are set to be without rookie defensive end Cashius Howell in the coming weeks.
Head coach Zac Taylor said at a Monday press conference that Howell had wrist surgery after being injured in Sunday’s overtime win over the Titans. Taylor did not specify a timeline for the second-round pick’s return, but the Bengals have not put Howell on injured reserve at this point so that suggests they think he can return without missing four games.
Howell has played around 40 percent of the defensive snaps this season. He has six tackles, two tackles for loss, a sack and five quarterback hits.
With Howell out of action, 2025 first-round pick Shemar Stewart could see more playing time. Stewart played on Sunday, but was a healthy scratch the week before due to the other options at defensive end in Cincinnati.
The Falcons have ruled out a pair of players for this week’s game against the Bengals in Madrid.
Head coach Kevin Stefanski said that defensive end Samson Ebukam and wide receiver Zachariah Branch will both miss the game due to hamstring injuries. Stefanski said he does not know if the two players will miss more time.
Ebukam has 11 tackles and 2.5 sacks in seven appearances this season. Branch has 10 catches for 64 yards on offense and he has also served as a punt and kickoff returner.
The Falcons will update the rest of their injuries when they release their first practice report of the week on Wednesday.
The Bengals apparently need to dig themselves a 13-0 hole before they’re ready to start playing football this season.
The Bengals spotted the Ravens that lead in the first half of Week 7 before rallying for a 35-13 win and they found themselves down 13-0 in the first quarter against the Titans this Sunday. They didn’t wait until the second half to get their act together this week, but they had to struggle the whole way before finally nailing down a 43-36 overtime win.
Burrow and others fielded questions about their slow starts in their postgame press conferences, but Burrow was more interested in the final scores because he feels that scrapping out wins like their last two are a sign that the team has fixed part of what has ailed them the last few years.
“We found a way to win today. We’re 5-2,” Burrow said, via a transcript from the team. “We lose that game for the last three years. It’s hard to win. You want to be great snap in snap out, but it’s not the reality of it. All we can do is keep working hard and get better. You win from wins and losses and good plays and bad plays. That’s what the NFL and getting better is. We’ll continue to do that.”
Burrow threw three interceptions to go with five touchdown passes and his game-winning touchdown run on Sunday. He acknowledged the need to “be better and limit those critical mistakes,” but returned often to the theme of finding ways to win when they would have fallen apart in the past.
Star wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase gave a fiery halftime speech last week when the Bengals trailed the Ravens 13-0. The Bengals won 35-13.
Chase put his frustration on public display Sunday, once spiking his helmet on the sideline and another time being animated. The Bengals trailed the Titans 13-0, 28-23 and 36-29 before winning 43-36 in overtime.
The Bengals seem to like angry Chase.
“He’s a pro, and guys get emotional sometimes,” quarterback Joe Burrow said, via Geoff Hobson of the team website. “That’s how it is. I like when he gets emotional like that. It usually means I need to do a better job of throwing him the ball. That’s a good reminder.”
Chase had his first 100-yard game of the season, with 141 yards and a touchdown on 11 catches, but two of Burrow’s interceptions were intended for Chase. The quarterback and wide receiver had a miscommunication on a scramble drill on one, and Burrow underthrew a wide-open Chase on another that should have been a touchdown.
Chase agreed that he “probably was” upset, but he wouldn’t say why.
“He may be mad at me. He may be mad at whoever,” coach Zac Taylor said, via Ben Baby of ESPN. “I trust him to go out there and do his job. That doesn’t change anything.
“I kind of like it, to be honest with you. It’s something different to deal with. It’s kind of good. I like the competitiveness from our guys.”
