Chase, Higgins still light on practice ahead of opener
Cincinnati's 2 best receivers spent Thursday on the rehab field, but Paycor Stadium's belief is they'll both be ready when games start counting against Tampa Bay.
Chase, Higgins spend another day on the rehab field, and nobody in Cincinnati is panicking
Thursday's session was light and held indoors, and Cincinnati's top 2 receivers spent it the same way they spent Tuesday and Wednesday — working with trainers on the rehab field instead of running routes. Ja'Marr Chase is managing a hyperextended left knee from an August 25 practice; Tee Higgins is nursing a heel contusion. Reporter Yanni Tragellis of CBS relayed the same line both days: "still not practicing, but expected to be ready to go by week 1."
Zac Taylor has said as much himself, telling reporters this week that "Tee and Ja'Marr will be good at the end of the week," per Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic — and the outside reporting backs him up, with Ben Baby of ESPN.com writing that Higgins' issue "isn't considered to be a major concern." Dax Hill, working back from his own hamstring injury, is inching into individual drills too, another name worth checking before Cincinnati's first game that actually counts arrives September 13 against Tampa Bay.
A perfect preseason closes with McPherson perfect too
Cincinnati closed the preseason exactly how it opened it — comfortably — beating the Eagles 30-13 on the road August 29 to finish 3-0 in the preseason. Evan McPherson was automatic, connecting from 29, 58 and 34 yards and adding all 3 extra points, the kind of tuneup that should settle any doubt about the leg before it matters. Colbie Young caught his only target for 9 yards, and Tahj Brooks carried 6 times for 22 yards and returned a kickoff 37 yards — though he also lost a fumble, a reminder that August stat lines cut both ways.
Eagles30-13
Bears27-9
Lions16-14The signature moment belonged to undrafted rookie Jamal Haynes, who broke a 39-yard touchdown run late in the fourth quarter — a play NFL Network ranked among the best rookie runs of the entire preseason, per Yahoo Sports. Haynes, out of Georgia Tech, finished the night with 7 carries for 78 yards, while Kentrel Bullock soaked up the heavy fourth-quarter workload behind him, a division of labor that said as much about who Zac Taylor trusts late as who found the end zone.
Burrow says the Bengals brought in the right guys to chase a title
Joe Burrow used a guest appearance on Ja'Marr Chase's own podcast this week to lay out exactly how high his expectations are for 2026, saying the Bengals "have brought in the right guys to chase our goal of winning a Super Bowl," Kevin Patra of NFL.com reports. It's the kind of line a quarterback only gets to say out loud when the roster behind him actually looks the part.
Joe Burrow: Bengals have brought in the right guys to chase our goal of winning a Super Bowl. t.co/alDpJgYrPB
The pieces he's talking about are already sorting themselves out on the depth chart. Mike Gesicki is slated to open the season as Cincinnati's top pass-catching tight end, Samaje Perine sits at No. 2 running back behind Chase Brown, and Brown himself told Landon Belote of SI.com he's looking forward to an elevated role in the offense in 2026 — the kind of contributors Burrow means when he talks about the guys the front office added.
Nobody agrees on this team, and the Buccaneers won't settle it
Cincinnati's next game is Sunday afternoon vs. the Buccaneers at Paycor Stadium, and the market already has a read on it: the Bengals opened as 3.5-point favorites, with the total set at 51.5 — a number that reads high-scoring even against a Tampa Bay team that was shut out 19-0 at Jacksonville in its preseason finale. The Buccaneers still finished their exhibition slate 2-1, a reminder that August scores — theirs or Cincinnati's — say more about who played than who's good.
The bigger story is what Cincinnati is trying to fix on the other side of the ball. The Bengals finished 2025 dead last in rushing yards allowed, and the offseason answer was to go get help — trading for defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence and signing edge rusher Boye Mafe, with Al Golden entering year 2 as coordinator. Tampa Bay's own preview of this game frames it plainly: if Burrow stays healthy, "the ceiling for the Cincinnati offense" is about as high as it gets in the league — the defense is the variable nobody outside Paycor Stadium is ready to bet on yet.
That uncertainty shows up in the numbers, too. Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic flagged that no team carries a wider gap between its best-case and worst-case projected finish than these Bengals — an 8-spot swing between the highest and lowest outcomes out there. A win over Tampa Bay on September 13 wouldn't settle that argument, but it would nudge it somewhere.