Important Bengals Starter Returns to Bengals Practice During Closed Media Session

The Bengals have a huge piece of the defense back on the practice field following the preseason. The franchise's social media team posted a mash-up of players practicing during a closed session to the outside media, and Dax Hill was in the mix, moving well on Sunday.

He had been dealing with a soft-tissue injury for the better part of a month and now looks like he'll be ready to roll for the season opener against Tampa Bay, pending no setbacks.

All that's left on the injury front are knee injuries to defensive end Shemar Stewart and wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase.

Stewart's ding was much worse than Chase's, and he likely won't play in the opener or Week 2 given his timeline from late July, but Zac Taylor should have an update on Chase Tuesday afternoon.

The outside media gets to view tomorrow's session as Cincinnati starts hammering preparation for Week 1.

Taylor discussed how his team was trending in the final week of preseason.

“We just need to continue to practice, and I think just as many situations as we can put ourselves in, get our players comfortable with that," Taylor said. "But we’ve gotten good work at this point. Now, we’re going to do some three-day stretches. We’re getting some good work this week, leading into Philly, and then three days leading into a bye, so we’re really looking at nine practices there. Ten practices, really, to get to Tampa Bay. So, that’s the way I think of it. We’ve got 10 real practices to get ourselves ready to go, and that’s really where our focus department turns to."

Chase may be out there closer to the end of the week if he doesn't suit up tomorrow, but there's been no indication the knee injury is worse than he led on at his locker last week.

"Just a football play, misstepped, missed my footing, and it's a little tweak, but I'm fine. I don't know like what exactly went down or how I did it. I'mma be honest, I really don't know. It was like an incident of me missing the ground or missing my footing or something like that," Chase said at his locker last Tuesday. "I mean, when it first happened, I sat back down on the ground. I just took a minute to thank God, just prayed for a second, then I got up. So I mean, other than that, I can't really think about nothing but God and just making sure I'm alright."

Check out the video of guys getting work in below:

"Expect greatness." pic.twitter.com/OP7XCvKLcW
— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) August 31, 2026

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