Attendance wasn’t an issue for head coach Zac Taylor and the Cincinnati Bengals during offseason workouts. As a reward, the Bengals' coach trimmed mandatory minicamp to just one day.
Taylor announced that the team has Wednesday and Thursday off following Tuesday’s minicamp practice. Mandatory minicamp was previously scheduled for Tuesdays through Thursday.
“I think we had a really successful offseason. We got nine really good OTA days in and we just finished up that minicamp practice today, and I know we were scheduled for (two more days of practice), but I told the players that they're done,” Taylor said on Tuesday. “We've completed the offseason program. We got a lot out of it. Our attendance was awesome. So hats off to those guys. I thought we really improved ourselves as a team, and we've told those guys that the offseason program has concluded until training camp."
Great participation was one of the main reasons Taylor decided to end mandatory minicamp early. Another reason was to provide players an incentive to get vaccinated. The NFL has relaxed COVID-19 protocols in place for teams that have 85% of their players inoculated. The Bengals are close to reaching the 85% threshold. Taylor hopes more of his players use their additional time off to get vaccinated.
“One of the things that is really going to help us in training camp is the more guys that we can get vaccinated,” Taylor said. “We had a fair number of our players (on Monday) who said they would get it (Wednesday). We’re well on our way to making life pretty easy for ourselves in training camp in terms of scheduling and all the protocols. That combined with the work we've gotten done, we decided to move on until training camp."
Other Bengals news and notes:
HAKEEM ADENIJI SIDELINED: Taylor revealed that the second-year offensive lineman had surgery to repair a torn pectoral. Adeniji is expected to miss several months.
“Hakeem, about a week-and-half ago, he had to have surgery on his pec. It was just kind of an injury that he had. It was unfortunate, because Hakeem was a guy who obviously did well for us last year as a rookie, and has a bright future and still has a bright future,” Taylor said. “That's just a setback that we'll have to deal with right now. It will be a several-month-length issue and we'll see where it goes from there. He had surgery last week, and he won't be around for a while."
Adeniji appeared in 15 games last season, including five starts.
The Bengals drafted Adeniji in the sixth round of the 2020 NFL Draft.
7-ON-7: The Bengals' offense was clicking during the 7-on-7 portion of practice. The football didn’t hit the ground once.
“We were clicking,” second-year quarterback Joe Burrow said on Tuesday. “That’s the way it should be in 7-on-7 with no rush. We’re going to continue to execute. And that also comes with routes on air, just knowing the timing of the receivers. We’re getting better and better each week.”
LINEMEN GOING THROUGH REHAB: Defensive tackles D.J. Reader (quad) and Renell Wren (quad) rehabbed off to the side during Tuesday’s session.
On the offensive side, starting center Trey Hopkins (knee) went through rehab during Tuesday’s minicamp.
“Hopeful to get those guys back as training camp pops up on us," Taylor said of Reader, Wren and Hopkins. "We got five more weeks to work through that, but all of those guys have been making good progress as we would’ve hoped this offseason and we’ll circle back at the start of training camp and see if they’re ready to go.”
Videos from minicamp:
Bengals secondary going through a walk through
Joe Burrow doing a naked bootleg at minicamp
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