The Bengals will have most starters playing in their preseason opener against the Lions on Thursday night.
Head coach Zac Taylor told reporters in his Tuesday press conference that key players like Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, and Dexter Lawrence are all slated to be on the field this week, though it will be for limited series.
“It won’t be a ton of time, but for our fans to come out there, they’re going to see Joe, Ja’Marr, and Tee. They’re going to see Dexter,” Taylor said. “So, they’ll get a chance to enjoy some of our players there. But how long I keep them out there remains to be seen.”
Taylor added that not every starter is going to participate in the game, as some are dealing with minor injuries. But Taylor noted that there isn’t currently anything major that will keep guys out into the regular season.
Kickoff between the Lions and Bengals is slated for 7 p.m. ET on Thursday night.
Bengals rookie defensive end Cashius Howell has spent most of training camp playing with the second team behind Myles Murphy and Boye Mafe. But he earned a promotion Thursday, getting more first-team snaps.
According to Jay Morrison of SI.com, Howell twice beat starting left tackle Orlando Brown Jr.
“I’ve had a few [first-team] reps here and there, but today was the first real day that I’ve gotten good, solid, quality reps,” Howell said. “It gives me a little bit of confidence. But regardless of who lines up in front of me, I want to make sure I’m coming out and bringing the same competitive performance, the same energy.”
Howell went 41st overall despite being the SEC’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2025 with 11.5 sacks. His 30 1/4-inch arm measurement — the shortest of any edge rusher since at least 1999 — was the reason.
The Texas A&M product has had no problem getting separation in camp.
“It’s very hard to do what he’s doing so early,” Mafe said. “It’s been exciting to see. I’ve been saying he’s going to be a great player. I’ve always known that. He has it in him. It’s just a matter of getting comfortable.
“Once he does, he’s gonna be a dog in this league, and I can’t wait to see it.”
The Bengals got tight end Josh Kattus back at practice on Thursday.
Kattus was placed on the non-football illness list before the start of training camp last month. The team announced that he has passed a physical and been activated from the list.
Kattus signed with the Bengals after going undrafted in April. He had 38 catches for 505 yards and six touchdowns in 44 games over four seasons at Kentucky. Kattus started 26 of those contests.
Mike Gesicki, Drew Sample, Erick All, Tanner Hudson, Cam Grandy and seventh-round pick Jack Endries are the other tight ends on the 90-man roster in Cincinnati.
The Bengals will kick off their preseason schedule next Thursday and head coach Zac Taylor shared some of his plans for that game against the Lions at a Thursday press conference.
Taylor was asked if he is planning to play the team’s starters against Detroit and Taylor said that those players will see action.
“They will play a little bit. We’ll just determine how much at a later date,” Taylor said.
It’s a similar approach to the one the Bengals took to start the 2025 preseason. After leaving starters on the bench for several years in August, the Bengals changed course by putting Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase and others on the field. Burrow went 9-of-10 for 123 yards and two touchdowns, including one to Chase, before heading to the bench.
The shift in approach was designed to help the team get off to a faster start in the regular season and it looked successful as the Bengals opened with a pair of wins, but an injury to Burrow helped send them to a 4-11 record the rest of the way.
When the Ravens rewarded receiver Zay Flowers with a new deal that carries a new-money average of $35 million per year, plenty of other receivers surely took notice.
The most obvious raised eyebrows belong to Rams receiver Puka Nacua and Cowboys receiver George Pickens. Nacua, who’s making $5.767 million in the final year of his rookie contract, has other issues that are complicating a long-term deal. Still, with each new big-money receiver deal that’s done, the absence of one for Nacua becomes more glaring.
With Pickens, the real question is whether the Cowboys will tag him again next year. At $27.298 million for 2026, the Cowboys could hold Pickens in place for $32.75 million in 2027 — still well below the top of the market. Surely, Jerry Jones will be inclined to do that.
But it’s not just the guys who haven’t gotten paid who will take notice of the Flowers deal. Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson, like Flowers, is at $35 million per year. All due respect to Flowers, he’s not Justin Jefferson.
Eventually, Bengals receiver Ja’Marr Chase will start to wonder whether he’s fairly paid at $40 million. Especially as more players who aren’t Ja’Marr Chase approach and pass his APY.
So, yes, the Flowers deal will make waves. The Drake London deal will make waves. Eventually, it will fuel a wave of contracts for other receivers who’ll see those deals and get ideas of their own that, given the market and the ever-increasing salary cap, are more than fair to have.
The Bengals’ offense has a problem in training camp: Dexter Lawrence.
Lawrence, the defensive tackle who arrived in Cincinnati in a trade with the Giants this offseason, has been a menace, even though he’s not allowed to touch the quarterback.
Bengals guard Dalton Risner told Jori Epstein of Yahoo Sports that Lawrence is bringing intensity to training camp.
“There’s certain guys in this league like Dexter who wreck a whole game play and you have to do everything around them and you change everything you’re doing,” Risner said. “You’re going to have to change how you block against certain guys. He’s just making us do it really early and really often.”
Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase said Lawrence is causing the Bengals’ offense problems.
“Honestly, he’s been terrorizing practice,” Chase said. “I can honestly say that.”
Bengals offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher said Lawrence is pressure testing the Bengals’ offensive line.
“When you have a man as big as [Lawrence], the quick twitch and the speed they’re able to play with just disarms you,” Pitcher said. “I don’t know what you do to counteract that other than you just really focus on the technique of this interior line and you got to be really cognizant of what types of schemes you’re trying to run and how often that guy’s truly one-on-one.”
Hakeem Adeniji will not be providing the Ravens with offensive line depth this season.
The team announced on Monday morning that Adeniji has been placed on the reserve/retired list. Adeniji signed with the Ravens a little over a week ago, but he has decided against continuing his NFL career.
Adeniji was a Bengals sixth-round pick in 2020 and he started 15 of the 39 regular season games he played over three years with the team. He also made seven starts in the postseason.
Adeniji, who saw action at both guard and tackle, moved on to the Vikings in 2024 and the Cowboys in 2025. He played 16 games and made one start in those stops.
While Bengals defensive end Shemar Stewart was carted off the field from practice on Wednesday, he should be OK relatively soon.
Head coach Zac Taylor told reporters on Thursday that Stewart “avoided a major injury.”
“He hyperextended his knee,” Taylor said, via Ben Baby of ESPN. “It will be several weeks. Hard to pinpoint exactly how much in training camp that’ll be. But, very fortunate because obviously it looked bad and he’s put in a lot of work. So, hard to see him go down like that. But, the good news is we’ll be getting him back sooner rather than later.”
As noted by a joint report from ESPN and NFL Network, Stewart is not believed to have suffered any ligament damage.
The No. 17 overall pick of the 2025 draft, Stewart appeared in eight games with five starts as a rookie. He recorded one sack with two tackles for loss, four quarterback hits, and one pass defensed last year.
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.
