After 5 padless practices, the Bengals began to ramp things up in training camp. The pads are now on, and the battles are heating up. Rookies are looking to force their way up the depth chart, while some of the veterans are trying to fight them off. Things have been intense thus far. Let’s take a look at how things have been shaping up.
Starting with some of the injury news, Joe Burrow remains out with his calf injury, while Chidobe Awuzie has slowly been increasing his workload, as he works his way back from a torn ACL suffered last year. OT Devin Cochran started off on the active/PUP list, but has since been placed on IR, which will end his season, unless the Bengals waive him with an injury settlement. Fellow OT La’el Collins continues to do some rehab work, as his ACL recovery progresses. Charlie Jones picked up a shoulder injury a few practices ago, but was back at it in the latest one. Trey Hendrickson, who has been dealing with a lower body issue, has resumed practicing. Finally, Trayveon Williams was back out there after picking up an ankle injury. Williams was only doing some light stuff, but the fact that he is there at all is good news, given that he was expected to miss at least a couple of weeks.
With Burrow out, Trevor Siemian and Jake Browning have been splitting the first team reps. After Browning seemed to perform a bit better in the early training camp practices, Siemian seems to have been the better of the two in the more recent ones. Though, it should be noted that neither have exactly been lighting it up.
Siemian’s best day was probably on Thursday, where he went 15/16 in team drills, according to Dan Hoard. Irv Smith was a favourite target, and the offence scored back to back TD’s, one of which ended in a 4th & goal TD run by Joe Mixon.
On Friday, Tyler Boyd was given some time off. This opened things up for Trent Taylor to have a big day. With Charlie Jones now in the fold, Taylor is really fighting for his spot. On this day, he made the most of his opportunity, making 4 catches on Siemian’s first 5 passes, and nearly making a diving catch on another.
On Sunday, Jake Browning got reps with the first team, but the offense failed to move the ball much in two drives, going 3 and out in one of them. Siemian, with the second team, led a 10 play drive, with Chase Brown and Andrei Iosivas playing big roles.
Later on, Siemian took some reps with the first team, leading them inside the 5 yard line. However, a pass interference call on Ja’Marr Chase put the offence in a bad spot. They ended up falling short of the goalline on 4th & goal.
In some clips, the Bengals can be seen working putting their RB to work in pass protection. Mixon has turned in some solid reps, something that hopefully will translate into more gameday success in this area. Pass protection has been a glaring issue for Mixon, and improving it will help him to stay on the field in key moments.
Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins have continued their good camps. At this point, news like this doesn’t need any kind of in depth analysis, but it is worth mentioning. Something that I did find interesting was that Tee Higgins has been getting some work in the slot. It seems as though the Bengals want to move their pieces around at times, and making Higgins more versatile will allow them to do more of it.
WR Andrei Iosivas started camp a bit up and down, but seems to have since settled in. He has been making some impressive catches with the reserves, and his size/speed combination has been noticeable.
Trenton Irwin has been one of the biggest standouts of training camp thus far. He has been making plays consistently, with an impressive one handed TD catch as his highlight.
At RT, Jonah Williams and Jackson Carman have been splitting first team reps. Though there is a battle going on for the spot, it would still be a pretty big surprise to not see Williams come away with it. That said, Carman hasn’t looked out of place, and some of his battles against Myles Murphy have been fun to watch. Carman anchored nicely against him on one rep in particular. Murphy did, however, get a nice win later on.
Rookie CB DJ Turner has given up some plays to bigger receivers, like Tee Higgins and Andrei Iosivas, but has still made a number of highlight plays. His athleticism and ball skills continue to stand out.
The defence has been able to take advantage of inconsistent QB play, with pass breakups being a theme for some of the practices. Mike Hilton and Jelen Davis have both stood out in the slot, while Cam Taylor-Britt has flashed at times as well. Taylor-Britt’s battles against Ja’Marr Chase have been intense. You can’t expect perfection against a guy like Chase, but the young CB hasn’t been disgraced at all. This kind of practice should only sharpen him up for when the season rolls around.
On to special teams now, K Evan McPherson has been very good in camp. On Saturday, he reportedly went 6/6 at the end of practice. The punting battle, meanwhile, hasn’t been much of a battle thus far. Drue Chrisman has unfortunately remained out after dealing with a medical situation. The hope is that he can return soon. Brad Robbins has handled all of those duties, and has looked good. His directional punting has drawn a lot of praise, but a 60 yard punt on Monday turned some heads, given that distance isn’t exactly something he is known for.
The Bengals continue training camp on Wednesday, in what will be a joint practice with the Green Bay Packers. This comes ahead of Friday’s preseason matchup.