Bengals, Bears to Runback Joint Practice Experience After 2024 Disaster

For the second time in three seasons, the Cincinnati Bengals and Chicago Bears will hold a joint practice ahead of a preseason game.

Bengals head coach Zac Taylor announced Tuesday during his news conference after practice that the teams will hold a single joint practice on Thursday, Aug. 20, two days before they meet at Paycor Stadium for both teams’ second preseason game.

Taylor has a close friendship with Bears head coach Ben Johnson dating back to their time together in 2012 when both were young, first-year coaches getting their starts in the NFL with the Miami Dolphins.

“It's very easy,” Taylor said when asked if his friendship with Johnson affects the scheduling. “He's been great. So he and I will iron that out over the next couple of days, but they'll come here.”

Even though Johnson wasn’t the coach of the Bears the last time the Bengals and Bears met for a joint practice (Matt Eberflus was), it’s safe to say both teams are hoping for a much better outcome than their rain-soaked experience in 2024.

With the rainfall ranging from sprinkles to near monsoon levels, two Bengals players suffered season-ending knee injuries during the practice.

Running back Chris Evans tore his patellar tendon while covering a kickoff.

A few minutes later, offensive tackle D’Ante Smith suffered the same patellar tendon injury during team drills.

And fellow offensive lineman Trent Brown left practice early due to lower back tightness.

That was the first joint practice the Bengals held away from Cincinnati since Marvin Lewis was coach and the team visited the Atlanta Falcons for two practices in 2013.

This will be the fourth time a Taylor-coached team has had joint practices in Cincinnati.

The first was in 2022 as part of a Super Bowl rematch against the Los Angeles Rams. It was supposed to be two practices but ended up being 1 and 1/2 after a brawl broke out that saw LA defensive tackle Aaron Donald grabbing a discarded Bengals helmet and swinging it at Cincinnati players, landing a couple of blows.

In 2023, the Bengals welcome the Green Bay Packers for a single joint practice. Fights marred that experience as well, with GB offensive lineman Elgton Jenkins being thrown out of the practice.

And in 2024, a few days after the Chicago practice, the Bengals held a joint session with the Indianapolis Colts.

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