Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase gave the team a scare at practice on Tuesday, but it looks like that’s all it was.
Chase landed awkwardly while trying to catch a pass and limped off the field without assistance from the medical staff. Chase spoke to trainers, but never left the field and he gave a positive update on how he’s feeling during a radio interview after practice.
Chase said on 1530 ESPN that he felt he could have returned to practice, but the team “pulled me” out of caution.
“A little hyperextension, but other than that I’m fine,” Chase said.
The Bengals’ caution could extend to limiting Chase’s practice time in the coming days, but it does not sound like there should be much reason to worry about his availablity for the start of the regular season.
Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase went viral for the wrong reason at Tuesday’s practice.
Video of Chase landing awkwardly while trying to catch a pass and then limping off the field were all over social media on Tuesday afternoon. Chase’s knee bent in an unnatural direction when he came down and that provided reason for Bengals fans to fear the worst about his condition.
Those spirits were raised by further reports from the practice field. Chase did not go to the locker room after making his way off the field and did not appear to be in pain as he spoke to his teammates on the sideline.
Ears will still be open for updates about his condition, but it looks like the Bengals dodged a bullet with their top receiver.
The Bengals are moving on from a veteran offensive lineman.
Per Mike Garafolo of NFL Network, Cincinnati is releasing Cody Ford.
Ford, 29, has appeared in 50 games with 10 starts for Cincinnati over the last three seasons. He played all 17 games for the Bengals last year, though he was on the field for just seven percent of offensive snaps and 16 percent of special teams snaps.
A Bills second-round pick in 2019, Ford has played 99 career games with 42 starts for Buffalo, Arizona, and Cincinnati.
Bears linebacker Nephi Sewell was carted off the field during Saturday’s preseason game against the Bengals.
Sewell injured his right leg while making a tackle of Bengals running back Tahj Brooks after a 10-yard gain with 36 seconds left until halftime.
Sewell’s brother, Noah, a linebacker who remains on the active/physically unable to perform list as he works his way back from an Achilles tear, was among those wishing Nephi the best before he departed.
Nephi Sewell left last Saturday’s game against the Browns with a concussion after taking a hit on a kickoff.
He spent his first four seasons with the Saints, appearing in 30 games, before the Saints released him at the end of last season and Bears signed him to the practice squad.
While Thursday’s Bengals-Bears joint practice appears to have been mostly tame, there was a moment where things got a little spicy between the two clubs.
Via Landon Belote of SI.com, Chicago edge rusher Dayo Odeyingbo made contact with Cincinnati quarterback Joe Burrow midway through the session. A bit of a scuffle ensued, with receiver Ja’Marr Chase coming over to defend his QB.
Chase had a frank assessment of the moment after practice.
“I don’t care what we do,” Chase said, “we just better f—ing protect Joe.”
Burrow later joked that he hadn’t been in a practice fight since college.
The Bengals and Bears will play their preseason contest on Saturday night with kickoff slated for 7 p.m.m ET.
After reaching Super Bowl LVI in 2021 and the AFC Championship Game in 2022, the Bengals have missed the postseason in each of the last three years.
It’s not a surprise that Joe Burrow would believe that needs to change in 2026. The quarterback has talked a lot this offseason about championship aspirations.
But he made that even more explicit during his Thursday press conference after the Bengals’ joint practice with the Bears.
When asked if he’s treating 2026 as a “now or never” season, Burrow replied, “That’s how I’m treating it, for sure. That’s how I’m treating it.”
Why is Burrow so comfortable talking about having championship aspirations in mid-August?
“I’m trying to put it out into the world. I’m trying to manifest it,” Burrow said. “I’m trying to show our guys the urgency that I have and that I want us to have as an organization to go and make it happen.
“You can keep pushing it down the road, or you can talk about it now and say, ‘This is the year.’ And I’m tired of saying, ‘Next year, next year, next year.’ This is it. Life is too short to keep pushing things down the road. I’m trying to instill some urgency and some intensity in everybody to go and be great every day and try to go make it happen.”
Burrow at first said he wasn’t sure if his teammates were feeling that urgency, though he mentioned veteran teammates have spoken in front of the team about it. He somewhat changed his tune at the end of his own answer.
“I more so do it with my actions and individual conversations,” Burrow said. “But, everybody feels it — all the veterans that have come in and have been here feel it and want to go and do it.”
So what will it take for the Bengals to truly be a championship-level club?
“You’ve got to have a really close-knit team,” Burrow said. “You’ve got to have at team that trusts each other. You’ve got to have a team that wants to go to war for each other and fight for each other — wants to hang out off the field, wants to play games in the locker room, wants to sit with each other at lunch and have deep conversations. And you have to have great players and great coaches, obviously. But that’s not necessarily — a lot of teams have great players and great coaches, that’s not necessarily what does it.
“We’re working really hard for it,” Burrow added. “The urgency is very high in the locker room. You can feel it. It’s palpable. We have to be more consistent on offense. We have to — our standard is so high, but it’s so high because of what we’ve done and what we can do. So, I’m going to continue to push that and we’re going to keep getting better and see where we’re at Week 1. But I’m so excited for it.”
The reality of playing a franchise quarterback in the preseason entails the risk of the quarterback getting hit.
On Thursday night, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow got hit after left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. was beaten around the edge.
Meeting with reporters on Saturday, Bengals coach Zac Taylor defended Brown, who’s entering the final year of a four-year, $64 million deal that he signed in 2023.
“I think he’s motivated to give us the best version of himself,” Taylor said, via Zach Pressnell of SI.com. “He’s been a strong leader on this team. And I think anytime something doesn’t go perfectly, he wears it and takes ownership for it. I think anytime Joe gets hit, all those guys are trying to figure out what they can do better. And we all are. None of us want to be in that position. And there’s things that we can always do to help those guys work.”
Preseason or regular season, Burrow’s ability to play every game is critical to the Bengals’ prospects. They’ve missed the playoffs for the last three seasons. If the streak runs to four, things could get very dicey for Taylor in Cincinnati.
For most football players who make it to the NFL, football is without question their best professional move.
For Bengals cornerback Ceyair Wright, he had another option. And he chose to take it.
The team announced that Wright has left the Bengals to “pursue other opportunities.” It’s reportedly an acting role.
It’s a rare move for a pro football player to not play pro football, but Wright had an offer he couldn’t refuse.
“I don’t know how to properly define it for him,” coach Zac Taylor told reporters on Saturday. “He called us last night and let us know that he had an opportunity. I know it was a difficult decision for him. I think two things he’s really passionate about were colliding, and he decided to pursue this opportunity. So he’s a great kid, comes from a great university. And, you know, we wish him the best. He was fun to be around. He really competed hard for us. It was fun watching him play. I thought he was ascending as a player. But, obviously, he’s chosen to go a different path.”
Wright appeared in Space Jam: A New Legacy in 2021. He has several other acting credits.
The Bengals still hold his rights, if/when he chooses to return. As an undrafted free agent from Nebraska on the 90-man roster, however, it’s hardly a given that the Bengals will find a spot for him on the 53-man roster if/when he comes back.
Really, the decision was difficult only if Wright knew he’d make the team. He had a separate bird in the hand. As to the Bengals, there was no guarantee he’d be employed beyond August 30, the day for cutting 37 players.
The Bengals made a change at cornerback on Saturday.
They announced the signing of Matthew McDoom to the active roster. He takes the spot previously filled by Ceyair Wright, who has been placed on the reserve/left squad list.
Per the Bengals, Wright “left the team to pursue other opportunities.” Wright, who played LeBron James’s son in Space Jam: A New Legacy, signed with the Bengals as an undrafted free agent after playing at USC and Nebraska in college.
McDoom played his college ball at Cincinnati and signed with the Ravens after going undrafted in April. He was waived by Baltimore last week.
The Bengals will be getting a key piece of their defensive line back on the practice field.
They announced that they have activated B.J. Hill from the physically unable to perform list on Saturday morning. Hill had an ankle procedure in the offseason and has not practiced at all at training camp as a result.
Hill is in his sixth season with the Bengals. He started every game last year and had 66 tackles, five tackles for loss and four sacks in those appearances.
Hill was the only Bengals player on an injury list, so the entire 90-man roster is now eligible to practice with the team.
