The Bengals may have a significant injury concern with one of their key defensive players.
Defensive end Shemar Stewart was carted off the field after suffering an apparent leg injury during 11-on-11 drills at Wednesday’s practice.
Video posted by Caleb Noe of WCPO shows Stewart’s left leg buckling before he went down.
Kelsey Conway of the Cincinnati Enquirer noted Stewart was not able to put any weight on his left leg while leaving the field. The Bengals’ medical staff examined him briefly on the field before calling over the cart to take Stewart inside.
The No. 17 overall pick of last year’s draft, Stewart appeared in eight games with five starts as a rookie. He tallied one sack with two tackles for loss and four QB hits.
The Bengals made moves to add to their defense in multiple ways this offseason and the moves earned the approval of quarterback Joe Burrow.
Burrow called this year’s Bengals team the most talented that he has been a part of and shared that he believes the team has all it needs to contend for a championship. With training camp about to start, head coach Zac Taylor made it clear on Monday that he is in the same frame of mind as his quarterback.
“We’ve got what we need,” Taylor said, via the team’s website. “With everybody upstairs and ownership and personnel doing an unbelievable job, trying to provide us with the resources to go in. It’s on the players and the coaches to go get it done. And there’s a genuine excitement in the community. I’m in Cincinnati. I’m out and about. The people that I run into, whether I know them or don’t, you can feel the genuine excitement for the season.”
That excitement is attached to high expectations for Taylor in his eighth season on the sideline in Cincinnati and failing to meet them would impact his chances of seeing a ninth year. Taylor would be in the same position regardless of where he set the bar, so there’s little reason for him to avoid admitting what the offseason moves already stated about the team’s ambitions.
The Bengals are set to open up training camp without defensive tackle B.J. Hill on the field.
The team announced on Saturday that Hill has been placed on the physically unable to perform list. Hill, who has an undisclosed injury, is eligible to come off that list at any point during camp, but won’t be eligible to practice until he’s off the list.
Hill started every game for the Bengals last season and posted 66 tackles, five tackles for loss and four sacks.
The Bengals also placed tight end Josh Kattus on the non-football injury list. Kattus signed with the Bengals after going undrafted out of Kentucky.
The Bengals will be making two additions to their Ring of Honor this season.
Running back James Brooks and tight end Bob Trumpy will both be inducted after being elected by a vote of the team’s fans. A ceremony honoring the players will take place during the team’s November 1 home game against the Titans.
Brooks joined the Bengals in 1984 after three seasons with the Chargers and remained with the team through the 1991 season. He ran for 6,447 yards and picked up 3,012 receiving yards while scoring 64 touchdowns in Cinncinati. Brooks, who is second in Bengals history in rushing yards, made four Pro Bowls during that run and helped the team make the Super Bowl after the 1988 season.
Trumpy was an original Bengal in 1968 and spent 10 seasons with the team. He caught 298 passes for 4,600 yards and 35 touchdowns before moving into a long run calling games for NBC.
The Bengals are upgrading, not replacing, their 26-year-old stadium. On Tuesday, they provided a progress report.
“Phase One” of the multi-year project includes “renovated restrooms, upgraded concessions, transformed club lounges, reimagined suites, a redesigned Bengals Pro Shop, modernized scoreboard control room, improved wayfinding, and core infrastructure improvements.”
By 2027, the stadium upgrade will include “adding escalators, replacing stadium seats, and a new, larger videoboard featuring enhanced technology.”
The never-ending stadium arms race puts constant pressure on teams to find ways to keep up with the advancements made elsewhere. The current renovations are the first tangible evidence of last year’s lease negotiations that came dangerously close to making the Bengals geographic free agents.
Balanced against improving in-stadium experience is the reality that more and more money is coming from TV rights. Still, teams need to make going to the games sufficiently attractive to keep the stadiums sufficiently full, in order to provide the right background images for those watching at home.
Even as the NFL becomes more and more popular, seeing empty seats is the kind of thing that could cause some viewers to ask themselves, “Why am I watching this?” In this day and age, “because it’s on TV” is no longer good enough.
The Bengals had had enough of playing the Ravens on the road in primetime, as it had happened for four consecutive seasons.
So the NFL’s schedule makers were kind enough to put the annual matchup in Cincinnati between the two rivals, with the contest coming on Thursday night in Week 17 — which also happens to be New Year’s Eve.
Looking to make that environment more special, the Bengals announced on Monday that the crowd will also be a part of the theme, with the debut of the “White Bengal Stripe.” Fans will be asked to wear either white or black based on their section to create the striped effect.
The team has already announced which sections should wear white or black based on a map that can be viewed at this link.
As of yet, there’s no word on how many times the PA system will play “Seven Nation Army” during the contest.
The Bengals will kick off training camp in a little more than a week and the team announced that they will open six of their summer practice sessions to the general public.
The first of those six practices will also be the team’s first full-squad practice of camp. The team’s veterans report on July 28 and the next day’s practice will be open to all of the team’s fans.
Practices on July 30, August 3-4, August 7, and August 16 will also be open to the public. The August 7 practice will be held in the evening at Paycor Stadium while the other workouts will kick off at the team’s facility at 10 a.m.
Four other practices will be open to season ticket holders and those on the waitlist for season tickets.
Whenever quarterback Joe Flacco finally retires, he’ll have a reward waiting for him in Baltimore.
Flacco will be joining the Ravens Ring of Honor.
The first episode of the latest season of Quarterback on Netflix focuses on Flacco’s Week 1 return to Baltimore in the 2025 season, where he faced the team that made him a first-round pick in 2008. During a pregame conversation, Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti makes it clear to Flacco that Bisciotti is ready to put the Super Bowl XLVII MVP in the Ring of Honor once Flacco finishes his playing career.
“I’m so happy you’re healthy and still pulling this off,” Bisciotti says. “I thought I’d have you up in my Ring of Honor about five years ago.”
“You called me five years ago,” Flacco responds.
“I did, didn’t I?”
“We can delay that a little bit,” Flacco says.
It’ll be delayed at least another year, as Flacco embarks on his 19th NFL season — and his eighth since leaving Baltimore after the 2018 campaign.
And he’ll be back in Baltimore again this year, as the backup to Joe Burrow with the Bengals.
Defensive upgrades have been the main focus of the Bengals offseason, but they’ll need to remain a potent offensive team as well if they are going to make it back to the playoffs for the first time since 2022.
Part of that puzzle will be protecting quarterback Joe Burrow and left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. thinks the team is ready to go on that front. Brown is one of five returning starters on the offensive line and he said during an appearance on the Locked on Bengals podcast that he believes the unit is as good as it gets when it comes to slowing down opposing pass rushers.
“I really think — and I say this confidently — I really feel like we got the best pass protection unit in the NFL,” Brown said. “There isn’t a lot of groups that could come do what we do on a week-to-week basis and have the success that we’ve had, especially with the circumstances.”
Playing with three different quarterbacks last season didn’t make life easier for the line, which explains Brown’s comment about the circumstances. The lack of a consistent run game was also an issue and an upgrade on that front would make it harder to find ways to slow down the Cincinnati offense in 2026.
Veteran wide receiver Trent Taylor has announced his retirement.
Taylor made the announcement on social media over the weekend. He spent last season on the 49ers’ injured reserve list.
Taylor entered the NFL as a 49ers fifth-round pick in 2017 and spent four seasons with the team. He spent two seasons with the Bengals and one with the Bears before returning to the Niners in 2024.
Taylor caught 88 passes for 845 yards and three touchdowns for his career. Eighty of those catches and all the touchdowns came while he was playing for the 49ers. He also averaged 9.4 yards a return while serving as a punt returner for all three teams.
