CINCINNATI — The pads came on, but the tempers didn’t set off.
Maybe everyone was in too good of a mood after moving into their newly renovated locker room.
Tuesday’s sixth practice of training camp was the Cincinnati Bengals’ first in pads, and it’s annually a session where emotions and testosterone run high.
Amarius Mims Shines in First Practice in Pads
Last year the first skirmish happened even before the team put on pads in the fourth practice of camp when defensive end Trey Hendrickson got into it with new left tackle Orlando Brown Jr., prompting his “dog on a leash” comment.
Tuesday also was the hottest of the six days of camp this year, and head coach Zac Taylor attempted to dial it up a little more by scheduling a live-tackling period to close the practice, something he had never done before on the first day in pads.
“It’s something Zac decided to do, and I thought those guys were ready for it,” defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo said.
It was six plays with four runs and two short passes between the third-string offense and third-string defense, but the whole team got into it.
“Everybody got excited on the sideline, so it was great,” Anarumo said. “That’s what we’re going to do — we’re going to play tackle football when it’s real, so at some point you’ve got to do it.”
Wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase still hasn’t done anything, missing his sixth consecutive practice as part of his hold-in as he tries to get a new contract.
The players will get a day off Wednesday before coming back for another physical, padded practice Thursday as the number of days until the preseason opener shrinks to single digits.
Injury Report
Defensive end Myles Murphy left practice early, but he said afterward it was a simple hydration issue that led to some cramping.
Cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt, who missed the first four practices and went limited Monday due to recovery from a tonsillectomy, saw his first significant action, getting in for a handful of plays in 11-on-11 work and a few more in 7-on-7s.
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“It felt good just to get my wind back and getting used to having no tonsils,” Taylor-Britt said. “It is kind of different. It kind of gets dry back there. But it felt great to be out there with my teammates.”
Defensive end Trey Hendrickson missed his fifth consecutive practice as the team remains cautious with him after Taylor said he felt something pop up on Day 1.
Defensive end Sam Hubbard missed his second practice since suffering a knee injury that Taylor said wasn’t anything significant.
Tight end Tanner McLachlan (undisclosed) and defensive tackles Domenique Davis (undisclosed) and Jay Tufele (undisclosed) missed their second consecutive practice, while safety Tycen Anderson, who recently was cleared after rehabbing a torn ACL, also sat out.
The other absences were players who are on either the Non-Football Injury or Physically Unable to Perform list — tackle Trent Brown (tightness), cornerback DJ Ivey (knee), and defensive tackle Devonnsha Maxwell.
Quarterback Report
Joe Burrow threw more today than he had in any practice in camp, completing 15 of 20 passes over two length 11-on-11 periods.
Burrow didn’t attempt any deep passes, although he looked as though he wanted to on a play later in practice but couldn’t find a receiver. Defensive tackles B.J. Hill and Sheldon Rankins brought pressure up the middle, and Burrow flushed to his left and sprinted up the sideline for a long gain.
His best — and longest — throw was a deep over to Andrei Iosivas, who had gotten well behind Taylor-Britt.
It appeared to be a good play in real-time, but it looked even better when the Bengals posted a video of it, showing how Burrow looked off the safety and essentially threw Iosivas a no-look pass.
.@JoeyB with the NO LOOK pass to @AndreiIosivas 😮💨
Training Camp | @KetteringHealth pic.twitter.com/0qOoARU7Bx
— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals)
Backup Jake Browning completed his first five passes, including a deep one to wide receiver Charlie Jones on his first snap in 11s. But Browning completed one of the next four down the stretch, including an interception that would have been a pick-six by linebacker Shaka Heyward.
On Browning’s first pass after that play, rookie cornerback Josh Newton made a leaping PBU on a ball intended for wide receiver Jones.
Stock Up
It didn’t sound as though rookie tight end Erick All Jr., who was just cleared to practice Sunday after ACL rehab, was going to do much more than walk-throughs for the first few weeks, but he lined up for the second team’s first snap in 7-on-7s and made a leaping, contested catch against safety Jordan Battle.
It was another milepost day for first-round pick Amarius Mims as the pads went on and he looked even more impressive than he already has, enveloping 2023 first-round pick Murphy on nearly every snap the two went head to head.
Safety Geno Stone hasn’t made any splash plays to this point, but he hasn’t made any mistakes either, which is something defensive coordinator Anarumo made sure to mention after practice, saying the communication on the back end was “tenfold better” from last year.
Stock Down
You can chalk it up to the difference the pads make, but backup long snapper Tanner Hudson bounced at least three snaps to punters Austin McNamara and Ryan Rehkow.
Rehkow has been raising eyebrows with some booming punts, but he had a couple of shanks today, and they weren’t the result of poor snaps.
