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NFL teams compete during training camp practices are relatively common. The Bengals of Cincinnati are one of the three teams that have decided not to organize joint practices this year.
Bengal coach Zac Taylor thinks that there is a better way to prepare his players for the season. The coach prefers to see some of his thoroughness projected – and even star players – take representatives in pre -season matches.
Pro Bowl quarter-arre, Joe Burrow, and the wide receivers of the Ja’mar Chase and Tee Higgins stars played Thursday when the Bengals pre-season against the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday. Taylor argued that intrasquad competition is more beneficial than joint practices.
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Cincinnati Bengals coach Zac Taylor, during a match against the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on November 7, 2024. (Albert Cesare / The Enquirer / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
“I am grateful this year that we are not doing this (joint practice),” Taylor told journalists. “It is really good for us to continue putting installation stuff and modify certain things, instead of locking the opponent X that you know that we are going to spend three days preparing and practicing and revising.”
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Taylor said Bengals will have a mixed style competition between the offensive and the defense in six training sessions leading to the next team’s pre-season match.
Zac Taylor, head coach of the Bengals of Cincinnati, against the Tennessee Titans in a divisional eliminatory match at AFC at the Nissan stadium on January 22, 2022, in Nashville. (Andy Lyons / Getty Images)
“We can simply spend this on ourselves. And I think it’s really necessary at the moment for this group. This is how this camp has struck us this year without any practice against someone else, simply focusing on (ourselves). I am excited about this.”
Cincinnati Bengals coach Zac Taylor watches a first half’s touch line against the Baltimore Ravens in Baltimore on November 16, 2023. (AP photo / Matt Rourke)
Taylor said it would be another important week for the offensive line competition for Bengals. Lucas Patrick and Cody Ford participated in the position of the right guard, and the Bengals have mixed in different second unit attacking lines all summer.
“(It’s) very open,” said Taylor. “I think that nothing is in stone at the moment. There are still a lot of opportunities. There are eight real practices and two games, so we will use each of them to win all the information we can get out of it.”
Bengals open the regular season on September 7 against the Browns of Cleveland.
