LAKE FOREST, Ill. – After a sloppy, rainy joint practice against the Chicago Bears, Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said none of his starters will play in Saturday night’s game at Soldier Field.
What he should have said is one of them will. He just doesn’t know which one.
Taylor confirmed that both Dax Hill and D.J. Turner will play in the game, and one of them is going to win the starting cornerback job opposite Cam Taylor-Britt.
Turner appeared to seize the early lead through the first couple of weeks of training camp, but last week Taylor and defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo went back to the early plan of rotating them in for reps with the first team.
Cam Taylor-Britt, Bengals Defense Stand Tall vs. Long Ball
Saturday night in the preseason opener against Tampa Bay, Hill was impressive with three pass breakups. In the two practices in Cincinnati and today’s joint session at Halas Hall, Hill has been running exclusively with the first team.
“I thought he had a good game the other night,” Taylor said after today’s practice. “I think he’s making progress every single week.”
“Way too soon to say right now where that is,” Taylor added. “Everybody still has plenty of opportunity.”
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Taylor-Britt had the defensive play of the day, at least among the cornerbacks. Linebacker Germaine Pratt owns dibs on the overall title with his interception of No. 1 pick Caleb Williams on the first play of the day that had the teams going head to head during a 7-on-7 period.
“Set the tone for the day,” Taylor-Britt said. “And I believe that kind of just carried on throughout the different team events in everything.”
It was much later in the practice when Taylor-Britt made his play, a leaping, one-handed pass breakup against Williams.
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“I don’t know who it was against,” Taylor-Britt laughed. “I just saw the ball. I was trying to catch it, but it was raining outside.”
The receiver was Nsimba Webster, and he was one of many who tried to test Taylor-Britt and the other corners deep during practice.
“Yeah, most definitely, and I think that was our problem last year, like I preached before, the explosives, the deep balls,” Taylor-Britt said. “I think we kind of shut that down today with them wanting to take shots.”
The key, Taylor-Britt said, has been the return of Vonn Bell and the addition of Geno Stone, which is creating better dialogue and chemistry on the back end.
“It’s night and day (from last year) with the two safeties that we got back,” Taylor-Britt said. “It’s very different, man, having Vonn back, that voice that we need, and Geno. Just fell right into place basically with the back end, and we’ve all kind of come in together and help each other out in every way.”
He admitted there’s some difficulty getting everything settled with the constant rotation of Hill and Turner.
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“Yeah, you could say that,” he said.
But regardless of who is on the opposite side of the field, Taylor-Britt is focused on his job and, hopefully, his opportunities.
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