Geno Atkins joins A.J. Green and others on the injury report.
The injury bug isn’t loosening its grip on the Cincinnati Bengals.
Thursday, defensive tackle Geno Atkins joined the injury report with a knee injury. Alongside Tyler Eifert, it isn’t uncommon to see a veteran like Atkins get a rest day during the middle of the week.
But Thursday, Atkins was labeled as a knee injury in the “did not practice” column alongside A.J. Green, Dre Kirkpatrick, Alex Redmond and Drew Sample.
Then there is Atkins, whose status for the game in Oakland is now a question mark, to top it all off. Thursday is usually the telling day as far as forecasting the weekend goes, but Friday’s practice this week still has plenty of room for changes.
The odds once again have the Bengals as big underdogs.
Oddsmakers don’t exactly think the Cincinnati Bengals will pick up their first win of the season on the road in Week 11 against the Oakland Raiders.
Fresh off a 49-13 loss to the Baltimore Ravens, the Bengals hit the road as 10.5-point underdogs against those Raiders, according to BetMGM.
No great surprise here. Lamar Jackson might be an MVP candidate, but the Ravens quarterback running wild on the Bengals was merely the latest disaster for the lost unit — after a bye week, no less.
The Bengals defense, or those in charge of adding to it, haven’t made much of an effort to correct the issue. The team cut Preston Brown, but he hasn’t seen significant time lately anyway.
And on the offensive side, Ryan Finley was responsible for 14 Ravens points in his debut and his rookie struggles don’t figure to simply vanish.
As for those Raiders, they’re winners of two in a row and at 5-4 have done a better job of escaping the plethora of offseason noise than some might have expected. Derek Carr has completed better than 70 percent of his passes and the ground game averages 4.7 yards per carry, so the Raiders figure to have a big advantage at home over the Bengals defense.
This was a theme last week when looking at the odds — the Bengals used to be a savvy underdog play, if nothing else. But until something changes, that isn’t the case here.
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USA TODAY’s Nate Davis ranked the Titans’ potential interest in him at No. 6 overall among all NFL teams — ahead of the Oakland Raiders and behind the New Orleans Saints.
Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick hasn’t given up on football yet.
The league has put together a workout for the 32-year-old in Atlanta on Saturday, and all 32 teams are invited to attend.
USA TODAY’s Nate Davis ranked the Titans’ potential interest in him at No. 6 overall among all NFL teams — ahead of the Oakland Raiders and behind the New Orleans Saints.
“What’s the plan for 2020? Who knows? What we do know is that neither Marcus Mariota nor Ryan Tannehill is under contract,” Davis wrote. “We also know that the Titans appear unlikely to land on a top-10 draft pick.”
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Davis does make a solid point here.
Tannehill has been efficient, completing 97-of-136 passes for 1,161 yards with eight touchdowns and four interceptions since taking over in the third quarter of Week 6’s shutout loss to the Denver Broncos.
But neither Mariota nor Tannehill is guarunteed a spot on the roster next year, and it seems more reasonable to believe that both of them will be gone than that either of them will secure a significant extension after this season.
A lot remains up in the air, especially with such a strong 2020 NFL Draft class at the quarterback position.
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Names like Joe Burrow, Tua Tagovailoa, Jordan Love and Justin Herbert will be on the radar of many NFL teams and would probably provide a better option in the long-term for the Titans.
It will be interesting to see what the team does moving forward, but bringing on Kaepernick just doesn’t seem to be in their best interest.
An injury to Drew Sample is another hit to the 2019 Bengals draft class.
When it comes to the 2019 NFL draft class, the Cincinnati Bengals just can’t win.
That matches the results in the win-loss column, at least. The latest setback for the unlucky class arrived over the weekend in the form of an injury to second-round pick Drew Sample.
The team says it’s an ankle sprain and his immediate availability is in doubt. Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, though, reported Sample could end up on injured reserve.
In other words, right as the Bengals switch to long-term evaluation mode with Ryan Finley under center, Sample goes down and could miss the rest of the season.
Sample was a controversial pick with such a high-value slotting, which is only magnified more due to the issues along the offensive line and at linebacker. He was hardly employed in Zac Taylor’s offense before the injury too, playing just 109 snaps (17.58 percent).
Sample is hardly the first problem for the rookie class. The Bengals started the season without first-round tackle Jonah Williams, who suffered an injury over the summer and might not make it back at all this year.
Third-round linebacker Germaine Pratt has mightily struggled when on the field. Of the three fourth-round picks, Renell Wren isn’t playing often. Michael Jordan lost his starting job and Finley, barring a dramatic change, was drafted largely to be a backup.
A rough start for this draft class wouldn’t seem so bad if the last few classes haven’t struggled so much. But with the Sample injury, it’s yet another Bengals rookie missing out on critical developmental snaps at the best time for them.
But barring something unexpected, it sounded like the Bengals were doing typical due diligence.
According to Tyler Dragon of the Cincinnati Enquirer, the odds the Bengals actually sign Kaepernick are “slim to none” largely because of the team’s long-term plan at the position:
Bengals representatives have told The Enquirer that the team is building for the future and wants to evaluate rookie quarterback Ryan Finley for the remainder of the season. If the team is unsatisfied with Finley, the Bengals plan to draft a quarterback early in the 2020 NFL Draft. Sources abreast of the situation say adding a veteran quarterback at this particular time runs contrary to their vision of the future.
Granted, this is the NFL and things can change in a matter of moments. But with Kaepernick already 32 years old and his lengthy absence from the game, it makes sense the Bengals are taking a look but aren’t expected to make a move.
Sheerly from a football perspective, the Bengals don’t have a reason to add a fourth quarterback this season. Andy Dalton is presumably gone via trade or otherwise this offseason, but he’s more than a viable fallback plan were something to happen with rookie Ryan Finley over the remainder of the season.
This new Bengals coaching staff traded up to get Finley in the mid rounds this year and he was one of two quarterbacks to take official visits to Paul Brown Stadium before the draft. The other, Jake Dolegala, is also on the roster.
Pair those two with what should be a top-five quarterback prospect and there isn’t much room unless Kaepernick stuns the NFL on Saturday.
Regardless, it’s still interesting to hear the name even come up and the staff has otherwise ducked questions about it:
Zac Taylor on report of #Bengals evaluating Colin Kaepernick: "Our personnel staff does a great job evaluating everyone that's on the wire and available. I'd prefer not to announce where all our scouts are going." @fox19
As expected, John Ross is cleared to return to Cincinnati Bengals practice and will fill one of the two slots allotted for players returning from injured reserve.
It’s an exciting development for Ross, who flashed plenty of big upside under a new coaching staff on his way to 328 yards and three touchdowns over four games.
Call it a big boon for rookie quarterback Ryan Finley too, as he’ll soon get a big-play weapon back on the field to provide offensive spacing as he tries to convince the front office he’s the long-term answer.
Perhaps more interesting is what this means for injured reserve. The final designated to return spot figures to go to either cornerback Darius Phillips or first-round tackle Jonah Williams.
As for Ross, he’s eligible to play December 8 at Cleveland.
Thanks to another perfect passer rating, Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson has been nominated for another FedEx Air Player of the Week award
Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson had a perfect game in Week 10 against the Cincinnati Bengals. No, seriously — Jackson had a perfect 158.3 passer rating. That has him in the running for the FedEx Air Player of the Week award.
It’s the second time this season Jackson has been nominated for the FedEx Air award, winning it in Week 1 for his other game with a perfect passer rating. But Jackson has also won the FedEx Ground Player of the Week award this season — making him the only player ever to win both awards in a single season.
Jackson has some tough competition this week, going up against Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones. While Jackson has half the passing yards of Mahomes and fewer touchdown passes than Jones, he was the only player with a perfect passer rating in Week 10.
Jackson completed 15-of-17 passes against the Cincinnati Bengals for 223 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions. While Jackson technically threw two incomplete passes in that game, one was a spike to stop the clock before halftime.
With how much criticism Jackson has gotten for his passing ability in his short career, it’s a little redeeming to see him up for yet another award specifically due to his arm.
The Cincinnati Bengals will keep an eye on Colin Kaepernick’s NFL workout over the weekend.
According to Tyler Dragon of the Cincinnati Enquirer, the team will evaluate the details of the process. No word on if the front office will have anyone in attendance, but it sounds like the Bengals will indeed join the fray of at least getting the film to evaluate the happenings.
The NFL announced Tuesday that Kaepernick would partake in a workout for teams on Saturday in Atlanta, including on-field work and interviews. Teams have been invited, though we’ve yet to see official attendance sheets make the rounds.
Kaepernick turned 32 earlier this month and hasn’t played since 2016.
From a Bengals perspective, paying attention to the happenings there makes some sense with Andy Dalton clearly on his way out the door, leaving — for now — only Ryan Finley as the future of the position.
PBG Builders is the company contracted to do the job, in collaboration with Smallwood Nickle Architects.
The Tennessee Titans open construction beginning next week to expand Saint Thomas Sports Park, which will “almost double its current footprint in Nashville’s MetroCenter neighborhood.”
PBG Builders is the company contracted to do the job, in collaboration with Smallwood Nickle Architects.
Titans controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk and her staff toured multiple NFL facilities to make sure Tennessee’s facilities were on track with or exceeding the standards of the league.
The current 75,000-square-foot building will undergo renovations, and there will also be a new building near the practice field as a part of 60,000-square-feet add-ons.
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There will also be a 2,300-square-foot rooftop deck as a part of a new event space and a two-story, 39,000-square-foot parking garage with more than 100 extra parking spaces.
“We’ve added so many members to the Titans family over the past several years,” Adams Strunk said in a Titans Online report. “Evolving our workplace makes perfect sense from both a growth standpoint as well as maximizing our team’s overall effectiveness. This new facility will ultimately create the modern environment that will enable further success.”
With the expansion, the Titans’ growing staff will all be able to work in one space.
Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson is the talk of the NFL world and has some even joking about returning to the field.
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The Baltimore Ravens seemingly have something special going for them this season. With dual-threat quarterback Lamar Jackson leading a unique offense that has been on fire, they sit at 7-2 with a hefty lead in the AFC North standings and a hold on the No. 2 seed in the AFC playoff race. It has legendary former Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis joking about suiting up again.
On Showtime’s “Inside The NFL,” Lewis jokingly said he told owner Steve Bisciotti he still has “two quarters left” in him and he could come back to play with Jackson this season.
Lewis especially praised Jackson and Baltimore’s offense for being able to stretch out drives when needed. Against the New England Patriots in Week 9, Jackson led back-to-back touchdown drives late in the game that took just under 18 minutes off the clock in a 37-20 victory. While Lewis had a Hall of Fame career with Baltimore, he never played on a team with an offense as capable as what the Ravens have right now.
“If you all are holding the ball for seven minutes on a drive, and then nine minutes on a drive, I’m like, ‘Man, I’ve never had that in my career,'” Lewis continued.
The Ravens lead the league in time of possession, holding the ball for 34:07 per game, and points per game (33.3), so Lewis has a solid point here. The offense being able to sustain drives has helped keep an inconsistent Baltimore defense stay fresh late in games. In previous years, we’ve seen the defense falter in the second half and give up leads. But by putting up enough points early and keeping the ball out of the hands of the opposing offense, Baltimore has coasted to huge victories in recent weeks.
While Lewis is joking about a return to the sport after retiring seven years ago, it highlights just how quickly Jackson has earned respect in the league. With his leadership and playmaking ability, Jackson has clearly won over not only his own teammates but has seen plenty of opposing players give him high praise. As chants continue to grow for Jackson to win the NFL’s MVP award this season, the Ravens will continue to see people jump on his bandwagon.
Jackson’s energy and the respect he’s earned could cause priority free agents to choose the Ravens over more money from lesser teams. That could pay dividends as general manager Eric DeCosta continues to build up a young but talented roster.
