Zac Taylor Dives Into Coaching Contract News, Bengals Injury Statuses As Dolphins Practices Get Rolling

CINCINNATI — Zac Taylor gave his latest Bengals injury update on Wednesday as his team plays out the string of three meaningless games with no playoff hope left in the 2025 season.

All eyes are on Tee Higgins (concussion) as he works through the protocol this week. He continues to be limited as they monitor his status following two concussions within three weeks against the Patriots and Bills.

Taylor updated his status and touched on a few other names, declaring Kris Jenkins (ankle)

"Yeah, he'll be the same as last week," Taylor said about Higgins. "He'll go through practice today. Went through the walk-through, but again, (in concussion) protocol. So I'm not gonna make any guesses on where it ends up. ... Kris Jenkins will be out, for sure. There are some other guys who will work through the next couple of days, some of the ones we talked about the other day. But don't want to make any prediction where they end up, but Kris would be the sure one."

Cincinnati has no reason to rush any of these players back, especially Higgins, as he deals with the scary unknowns of a concussion.

One player who will definitely play over the final three games is star quarterback Joe Burrow. He wants to be on the field, and Taylor still wants his team to win games down the stretch, even though it will only make it harder to break this three-year playoff drought by hurting their draft slot.

NFL teams don't tank on purpose, though, like in other sports. The contracts are too short, and the games are too physical to not give 100% all the time. Taylor did not confirm or deny if his contract runs through next year or 2027, but was adamant he's doing everything he can to justify his HC responsibilities.

"I don't think it really matters. I coach every day like it's my last, and I've been through years in 2019 and 2020 that were literally you coach every game thinking it could be your last game, and I've seen how we responded after that. 21-22 compete for division titles and championships, and so this year is no different," Taylor said about his contract. "For me, it's going through adversity coaching every game in this profession like it could be your last one.

"I have a lot of confidence in our staff that we're going to get this turned around, and we're going to finish the season really strong and put together a great plan to get back to those championships I mentioned. So very confident we can do all that."

For more on Taylor's recently revealed contract extension go here.

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