The Bengals have a handful of players listed as questionable as they try to bounce back from their first loss of the 2026 season.
Safety Bryan Cook is on that list. Cook was limited in practice all week with an ankle injury and the team will hold off on a final decision about his status until the weekend. Cook has 12 tackles, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery this season.
Right guard Dalton Risner (knee) missed practice on Wednesday and Thursday, but returned for a full practice on Friday. Linebacker Swayze Bozeman (groin) and defensive tackle B.J. Hill (Achilles) are the team’s other questionable players.
Safety Kyle Dugger (quad) and wide receiver Colbie Young (knee) have been ruled out for Sunday’s game against the Jaguars.
Evan McPherson has been a critical piece for Cincinnati’s success through the season’s first three weeks and the league has now recognized him for it.
McPherson has been named AFC special teams player of the month for September.
McPherson was 8-of-8 on his field goal attempts, hitting five from at least 50 yards. He also connected on all eight of his extra points.
This is McPherson’s second career special teams player of the month award, making him the only Bengals player to ever win it multiple times.
After a down year in 2024, McPherson hit 89 percent of his field goals last season, with his only three misses coming from over 50 yards.
Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence has faced the Bengals three times in his NFL career and none of those contests has ended with a Jacksonville victory.
The Bengals won at home by a field goal in Lawrence’s rookie season in a game best remembered as the one that was followed by then-coach Urban Meyer staying behind to have a little fun at a local bar rather than travel home with his team. The Bengals won in overtime behind Jake Browning in 2023 and Browning came in to rally them to a win again after Joe Burrow was injured late in last season’s game in Cincinnati.
Those results make the Bengals the only AFC team that Lawrence has not beaten since he entered the league as the first overall pick in 2021 and he acknowledged that’s something he’s aware of during a Wednesday press conference.
“We gotta make it turn. We gotta go win it,” Lawrence said. “It’s definitely something that, when you’re going into the game, you think about. You’re not sitting there thinking about it every second of the day and all week, but I’ve thought about it. It’s a team that we haven’t beat. We lost a tough one there early in the season last year and that’s one that we definitely we want back. All those things you think about and you move on. You have to put your energy toward something that actually does something for you, which is preparing and getting ready to go.”
Both teams are 2-1 heading into Sunday’s game, so it’s an opportunity for the Jags to get an early leg up in the AFC playoff race in addition to getting Lawrence a clean sweep of the conference.
Quarterback Joe Flacco became a free agent in March. Before re-signing with the Bengals, he explored his options.
The Giants weren’t one of them.
Per a league source, Flacco had interest in the Giants. The Giants did not have interest in Flacco.
At the time, the Giants had Jameis Winston under contract through 2026. He has since signed a two-year extension.
Flacco, who played with the Ravens and current Giants coach John Harbaugh for more than a decade, eventually returned to the Bengals, on a one-year, $6 million deal. And the Bengals surely wouldn’t have been willing to part with Flacco in the days since Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart suffered a knee injury; they need to have Flacco around, in the event starter Joe Burrow suffers another injury.
Still, the Giants could have had Flacco in March. While they’d never admit it, they could be privately kicking themselves that they didn’t reciprocate his offseason interest.
The Giants instead will proceed with Winston, backed up by J.J. McCarthy. They surely hope Winston plays well enough to hold the job. If he doesn’t, McCarthy will surely get a chance at some point.
The Dolphins signed inside linebacker Shaka Heyward off the Bengals’ practice squad, the team announced Tuesday.
Heyward has appeared in 18 career games in two seasons with Cincinnati (2024-25). He has totaled eight tackles, including one tackle for loss, on defense, adding 14 tackles and one forced fumble on special teams.
He entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent with Cincinnati in 2025.
The Dolphins also announced signing offensive guard James Ester to the practice squad.
Ester initially joined the Dolphins on May 14 when they claimed him off waivers from the Packers. He entered the NFL in 2024 as an undrafted free agent with Green Bay, where he spent two seasons (2024-25) on the practice squad.
The Bengals announced several roster moves on Tuesday afternoon.
They confirmed the previously reported signing of wide receiver Mitchell Tinsley off of the Texans’ practice squad and that they have waived wide receiver Ke’Shawn Williams. They also placed cornerback Jalen Davis on injured reserve and signed tight end Tanner Hudson off of their practice squad.
Davis injured his hamstring in Sunday’s loss to the Steelers. Davis started two of the team’s three games this season and made 10 tackles. He’ll have to miss at least four games before he will be able to return to the lineup.
Hudson has played in two games this year and he has three catches for 17 yards. He played in 38 games for the team over the past three seasons.
With the Bengals bringing back one receiver, they’re letting go of another.
Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reports Cincinnati has waived receiver/returner Ke’Shawn Williams.
Williams muffed a punt return in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s loss to the Steelers. That allowed Pittsburgh to tie the game at 27-27 before Pittsburgh eventually got another field goal to win, 30-27.
News emerged earlier on Tuesday that the Bengals are signing Mitchell Tinsley off of the Texans’ practice squad.
Tinsley played all 17 games for Cincinnati last year.
Wide receiver Mitchell Tinsley played in every game for the Bengals last season and he is reportedly heading back to Cincinnati this week.
Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that the Bengals will sign Tinsley off of the Texans’ practice squad. Tinsley was cut by the Bengals at the end of camp and he signed with the Texans earlier this month.
Tinsley started four times for the Bengals last year and finished the season with eight catches for 116 yards and two touchdowns. He also appeared in two games for Washington during the 2023 season.
The Bengals put Andrei Iosivas on injured reserve last week, which left Dohnte Myers, Colby Young, and Ke’Shawn Williams as the wideouts behind Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins.
Through two games, the Bengals’ defense looked like it had undergone a significant transformation in the offseason — partially due to the addition of Dexter Lawrence.
But then came Sunday’s divisional matchup against the Steelers, with Pittsburgh’s offense generating 411 yards — including 138 on the ground — en route to defeating Cincinnati 30-27.
Lawrence, in his eighth pro season, provided some perspective after the game.
“I think it’s a reminder to show y’all that we’re not going to go undefeated,” Lawrence said, via Jay Morrison of SI.com. “No year is gonna be perfect. … Our goal wasn’t to go undefeated. So we’ll own this one. We’ll come back next week and go out there and play.”
Lawrence added that Sunday’s performance “wasn’t us.”
“We know we can’t allow that; however it comes, however they try to do it,” Lawrence said. “We made a lot of mistakes, and that’s what kept the game close and then ultimately helped them win.
“A lot of what was going on was self-inflicted. … You watched the game. You know what happened. I don’t think it was anything special that they had going on. We just didn’t do well on our end.”
The Bengals will get another tough opponent next week when the Jaguars come to Cincinnati.
Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow battled for 60 minutes today, but a Burrow fumble in the final minute sealed it.
With the Steelers leading 30-27 but the Bengals driving with 53 seconds left, Burrow was sacked and fumbled, the Steelers recovered, and Pittsburgh won at home.
Rodgers completed 19 of 34 passes for 292 yards, with three touchdowns and one interception, a very different game than he had in the first two weeks of this season. Through two games, Rodgers looked old and unreliable, but today he came to life with an outstanding performance.
Burrow completed 28 of 37 passes for 282 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions, but that late fumble will haunt him. Steelers running back Jaylen Warren had 17 carries for 127 yards, and he almost had a much bigger game, but an 87-yard run was called back by a DK Metcalf holding penalty.
The Steelers’ win leaves both teams at 2-1 and tied for the lead in what looks like it will be a very competitive AFC North. If Rodgers can keep playing like he did today, the Steelers are going to be playoff contenders.
