Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Flacco throws a pass during the NFL football team's training camp in Cincinnati, Monday, Aug. 3, 2026.
A week before the Cincinnati Bengals open their preseason schedule, coach Zac Taylor confirmed starters will play but wouldn’t share any specific plans beyond that.
The Bengals host the Detroit Lions in the preseason opener Thursday, Aug. 13 at Paycor Stadium.
Last year, the starters on both sides of the ball played two series in the first game and a full quarter in the second one before backups. Taylor has not given any indication if this year will be similar, but Cincinnati did open with a pair of wins before losing Joe Burrow for half the season.
“I'm not ready to go there yet, but they will play a little bit,” Taylor said in his press conference Thursday. “We'll just determine how much at a later date.”
Taylor also did not share plans for Joe Flacco. Normally the backup sees a lot of playing time in preseason, but with Flacco being such a veteran player, he likely will be managed differently. The Bengals also have Josh Johnson and Sean Clifford at quarterback.
Burrow has said he would like to play in preseason but will do whatever Taylor thinks is best. He had pushed for more snaps in preseason last year after only playing in two preseason games during his first five seasons, throwing one pass — a quick screen to a wide receiver — in 2021 and one series in 2024 with eight dropbacks and only one that lasted more than 2.5 seconds.
Cincinnati determined that lack of playing time for starters in preseason might have been contributing to slow starts in the regular season.
So far, Taylor seems to be leaning on the routines of last preseason, including morning practices.
Cincinnati Bengals: Burrow still ranks among best QBs in NFL
Cincinnati Bengals: Burrow still ranks among best QBs in NFL
The biggest difference this year is how many wrinkles the offense seems to be throwing in and the amount of under center plays the Bengals are running. Taylor said it’s been possible to try new things because of how experienced the players are on offense with all 11 starters returned from 2025. He’s not worried if they aren’t playing as well while ironing things out with new ideas, especially if that could be a sign the defense is improved.
Through seven days of practice, the defense has been the stronger side of the ball.
“I think it's not a group that's new to playing together,” Taylor said. “They've accumulated a lot of reps, so there's nothing for me that's ever overly concerning, really, in training camp. I like the adversity and the grind that they got to go through. And those guys have played enough football that when you play good defense, that's how a lot of games are, is you just kind of got to wait for the dam to break loose and then take hold of it and take control of the game. But there's going to be some drives that are really ugly, and guys just kind of make a play somehow within the scheme. … I think it's just been really good work for both sides of the ball so far.”
Ja’Marr Chase and Erick All Jr. were limited with a “workload management” day for them and Dexter Lawrence, but that meant more reps for Tee Higgins, Andrei Iosivas, rookie Colbie Jones and others.
Taylor said he still didn’t have a timeline for BJ Hill’s return, after opening camp on the Physically Unable to Perform list, and there is no clarity on how long Shemar Stewart will be out with the hyperextended knee injury he suffered last week. Dax Hill remained limited for a second straight day of practice Thursday.
It was another day where the defense looked ahead of the offense, but Bengals offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher said they just didn’t execute enough plays. There were lessons to be learned, especially from an unscripted period of practice.
“It's a stress,” Pitcher said of unscripted plays. “It's a way to impose stress on the players in a way that scripted periods don't. These guys all care very deeply about doing their jobs, and so when they know they're gonna be in for this set of plays and these are the plays that are going to be called, they go home, they study them, and you should see very little, if any, error when it comes to executing the mental parts of those plays.
“Now you're getting a call-it period and that's much more like a game where, hey, here's the call sheet and there's 150 of these things that can come out of his mouth at any given time. You got to be ready to go execute. And so the first couple of times you do that, you tend to see an uptick in alignment error, motion timing, targeting in the run game, targeting and protection, but we gotta, snuff that out quickly because that's real football and so you learn a lot about guys when you go to periods like that.”
Bengals Camp Football
From left, Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Dohnte Meyers runs with the ball as Bralyn Lux (21) and Tacario Davis move in on the play during the NFL football team's training camp in Cincinnati, Monday, Aug. 3, 2026.