Cincinnati Bengals coach Zac Taylor said the team is still waiting on more information about the right knee injury Erick All Jr. suffered in Sunday’s win at Baltimore, so he didn’t want to say too much about it yet.
The team appears to be preparing for at least a short-term absence, though.
Cincinnati (4-2), which hosts the Tennessee Titans (1-6) on Sunday, is signing former Bengals tight end Cam Grandy off the Minnesota Vikings’ practice squad. All, a Fairfield High School alumnus, injured the same knee in which he twice tore his ACL, the second one occurring in Week 9 of the 2024 season and causing him to miss the entire 2025 campaign as well. It’s unclear if he is dealing with the same type of injury.
Taylor was not ready during his press conference Monday to share what corresponding move would be made to open up a spot on the Bengals’ 53-man roster for Grandy, who was cut this preseason and picked up by Minnesota.
“He’s just somebody we can rely on, somebody we've got a lot of trust in,” Taylor said. “He was really a make-it roster guy for us, and just we were so deep at a lot of spots, we can't keep nine tight ends, you know, as much as we wanted to, so he's kind of always been a guy we viewed as a roster guy, and this year just didn't work out, and that was a really tough one for us. And so, to get him back, I think is really critical because he's somebody we've always felt like was a part of this thing, and so happy to get him back, and he's going to help us.”
Grandy originally signed with the Bengals as an undrafted free agent in 2024. He was cut that preseason but signed to the practice squad and ended up finishing the year on the active roster, then re-signed in free agency in 2025.
The former Illinois State product started seven of the 13 games he appeared in over two seasons with Cincinnati. He has not played a game for Minnesota.
Cincinnati lost tight end Tanner Hudson to a season-ending pectoral injury in the Week 5 win at Miami, but the Bengals filled that roster spot by signing safety Russ Yeast off the practice squad to account for injuries to safeties Kyle Dugger and Bryan Cook.
Dugger returned Sunday after missing the Week 4 and 5 games against Jacksonville and Miami, but re-aggravated his quadriceps injury. Taylor said he will be out this week against Tennessee.
Cook, who missed the Week 4 game against Jacksonville with an ankle injury, returned in Week 5 but came out briefly in the fourth quarter Sunday after going down on a combined sack with Boye Mafe. Trainers tended to him, and he walked off on his own and was back in the next drive.
Now it’s the tight end position that is depleted behind Mike Gesicki and Drew Sample. Rookie seventh-round pick Jack Endries was active for just the third time Sunday with Hudson out and ended up replacing All in the third quarter, earning nine of his 10 career offensive snaps.
“Jack's done a really good job preparing himself,” Taylor said. “You got to know every tight end spot. You got to know a lot of different roles you could play there when you're a backup tight end. Jack has been inactive and now active because of Tanner's injury and now more play time because of Erick's injury, obviously, so unfortunate why it's happening, but we're fortunate that Jack has put himself in a position to be ready, and now he's certainly going to get a lot more opportunities I expect him to take advantage of.”
All was having a good game blocking and receiving, with three catches for 26 yards, before his injury.
The Bengals have been getting good production out of the tight end position this season with Gesicki catching his fifth touchdown of the season Sunday and Sample adding one in the fourth quarter to put the game away as Cincinnati rallied from a 13-0 deficit to score 35 unanswered points.
Offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher said he was pleased with the response in the second half, but there’s still plenty of room for improvement. That was a glimpse of what the Bengals can be this season.
“It's a hard league to score five touchdowns on five straight drives,” Pitcher said. “That doesn't happen very often, even for great offenses. So, I'd love to say that we're just going to score a touchdown on every drive for the rest of the season, but I'm not that foolish. But we're going to try, and there's a lot of momentum that can be drawn from how we played the second half of that football game. So, we're going to do that, and we're going to do our best to make sure that it's a launching pad for who we can be moving forward.”
Cincinnati Benglas tight end Erick All Jr. (83) runs up the field during practice at the team’s NFL football training camp, Thursday, July 30, 2026, in Cincinnati. AP Photo/Tanner Pearson
AP Photo/Tanner Pearson