Enough Ced
The prognosis isn't good Sunday for NFL sack champion Trey Hendrickson (hip) and rookie edge Shemar Stewart (knee). Neither practiced Wednesday. Hendrickson didn't play in the Oct. 16 win over Pittsburgh, when Stewart started his first game back after missing four with an ankle injury.
That leaves Joseph Ossai, Myles Murphy, and Cam Sample, along with Cedric Johnson, to rush Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers from the edge.
Johnson, the second-year man from Ole Miss who played so well two weeks ago in his season debut against the Bears, can hear his dad now back home in Mobile, Ala.
"It's crazy," said Johnson of playing the 41-year-old Rodgers. "I hope I get a sack. My dad would love that. He's just a big fan of the game. He's like, 'This is going to be a legendary moment. You get to tackle Aaron Rodgers.' I can just hear him now talk about it."
But it won't be his first NFL sack. Johnson, a 2024 draft sixth-rounder, took 20 of his 83 rookie snaps in last season's final two games and racked up three of his four quarterback hits and that first sack. PFF graded him the Bengals' highest-rated pass rusher in the Week 17 overtime win over Denver.
Johnson stayed at Paycor Stadium during the offseason and worked with Bengals strength and conditioning boss Joey Boese, which made his training-camp injury doubly tough.
"Overall working on strength and speed and positional drills," Johnson told Bengals.com back in October when he returned to practice. "Just trying to build off those good rushes and make them better."
A day before the pads came on in training camp, Johnson ripped up his calf and didn't get back on the practice field until three weeks ago. By the time he came back for the Bears and logged 28 snaps in the kicking game and 16 more on the edge, it was only his third time in pads since last season's finale in Pittsburgh.
Johnson admitted after Wednesday's practice, he was gassed against Chicago. But special teams coordinator Darrin Simmons raved about his outing, where he helped Ossai block a field goal, and added a quarterback hit and two pressures on 12 pass rushes from scrimmage.
"At halftime, I was like, 'I've still got a lot more to go.' It was tough," Johnson said. "This week in practice, I'm being intentional, making sure I get in my conditioning while other stuff is going on."
They need him to put together numbers comparable to his last three games.
"Being helpful on the edge, attacking the quarterback, things like that, and being like that in the run game," Johnson said.
Joe Squared
Thursday is going to be like one of those historical photos of multiple presidents. Flacco (shoulder), who didn't throw Wednesday, throws Thursday. So does Burrow (toe) in limited fashion. They've combined for seven of the 52 300-yard games thrown against Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin's defense.
But Flacco says it's nothing to get excited about. He's glad to have Burrow's help on the sideline and in practice, but it's nothing supernatural.
"I think you can probably make too much about that, honestly. We're just two quarterbacks sitting in a room, and it's not like we're doing anything groundbreaking in there," Flacco said. "We're two quarterbacks in a room just like any other two quarterbacks, for the most part.
"I'm still at the point where you're able to kind of see the operation of things and kind of bounce little questions like that off those guys (Burrow and Jake Browning). I think that's still the biggest thing. And maybe with Joe, he has a way of doing it that's a little bit different than Jake, and I have kind of a little bit of a different way, but if I can kind of understand where they're coming from, it makes it a little easier for me."