Bengals Call Up Multiple Practice Squad Players, Including Joe Burrow Injury Backup Plan

The Bengals made a few practice squad elevations on Saturday as they travel to Houston for a big AFC battle against the Texans. Cincinnati is calling up quarterback Josh Johnson and linebacker Joe Giles-Harris.

It's likely a precautionary QB move in case Joe Burrow suffers a setback with his back tightness at any point in the next day.

"The Bengals today elevated LB Joe Giles-Harris and QB Josh Johnson from the practice squad to the active roster for tomorrow's game at Houston. Giles-Harris and Johnson are both classified as standard elevations. As practice squad players being elevated to the active roster for the game, they automatically will revert to the practice squad on Monday," The team site read.

Zac Taylor said Burrow should be good to go for the game as he is reticent to tell the star to reel in his aggressiveness with the ball. Still, Burrow is listed as questionable.

He discussed the push-and-pull of that situation on Friday.

"There’s honest communication with Joe and how he feels," Taylor said to the media after practice. "Face-to-face conversation. I feel good about what he says. He has got to play football. This is the NFL. Of course, we want him to be safe and healthy. I’m not comfortable saying don’t get the third down on third and 8. That’s why he’s here. He’s a competitor. Taking the stinger out of him, I’m not about that."

The offensive line may have to take extra care of Burrow this week.

“They were good. They kept him clean," Taylor said about the protection earlier this week. "It was a lot of pressure looks that we had to go over to get ready for the game. They got a great front. And so I was really impressed with the job that they did, number one, in protection, keeping Joe clean, giving him a lot of time to either extend the pocket and make some plays or just stand back and wait for someone to get open. The run game, there are some really big holes there for Chase.

"Some grinding runs there at the end of the game that were good. And then there's some opportunities I think just all across the board with everybody involved in the blocking to get some bigger plays that we may be missing.”

The game kicks off at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday.

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