The Bengals were back on the practice field on Wednesday and Thursday. Both of them were standout sessions for different reasons. Wednesday’s practice, day 11, stood out for its chippiness. Thursday’s, meanwhile, was the first practice on the new turf in Paycor Stadium.
After the defence had been winning some battles on days 8 and 9, the offence came out with more firepower on day 10. Some of that carried over into day 11, where Joe Burrow hit Tee Higgins a few times, including on a deep TD. He also found Kendric Pryor in the back of the endzone, who made a spectacular leaping catch over Cam Taylor-Britt.
We also saw Erick All get some work, in both 7 on 7’s and 11 on 11’s. During the 11 on 11 portion, he made a nice catch from Jake Browning.
Trey Hendrickson returned to practice, which was good, as he had been out since the first session. The bad news is that McKinnley Jackson was seen with a brace on his knee.
The biggest thing on day 11 was the occurrence of several scrums. On one, Ted Karras was into it with Logan Wilson after an overly physical play. On another, Germaine Pratt layed a hit on Andrei Iosivas, jarring the ball loose to prevent a catch. Karras took exception to this as well. Zac Taylor had to give the group some words after he seemingly had enough to the after-the-whistle shenanigans. In the end, cooler heads prevailed.
Day 12, as mentioned, was in Paycor Stadium. Zac Taylor wanted to have the team practice on the new turf, ahead of their opening preseason game against the Buccaneers on Saturday.
Bengals reporter Dan Hoard noted that there were some good battles in the OL vs DL 1 on 1 drills. Myles Murphy vs Amarius Mims continues to be one of the best head to head battles in camp.
As far as positional battles go, DJ Turner vs Daxton Hill continues to be a tight one. Turner got the edge today, picking off a Joe Burrow pass on 3rd & long. He has had some breakups, but it was good for him to pick one off.
One of the standout offensive plays was a Joe Burrow to Andrei Iosivas TD during the redzone portion of practice.
The bad news to come out of day 12 was Charlie Jones being carted off after going down with a non-contact injury. It is a bummer after he has been one of the standouts in camp. He was seen walking afterwards, but with a noticeable limp. Tests have been done, and the team is hoping for the best.
