Zac Taylor Updates Bengals Joint Practice Week Plan Ahead of Bears Session

A big week awaits the Bengals as training camp crosses the halfway point in Cincinnati. Head coach Zac Taylor is gearing his team up for the joint practice session against the Chicago Bears on Thursday and discussed how the team will schedule its week around that high-intensity session.

It will be the first joint practice for the Bengals in a couple of years after passing on one in 2025.

"So we'll just do a walkthrough here on Wednesday to give them that day back. But we're going to go pretty hard at it on Tuesday," Taylor noted. "We're going to get good work in the next two days here: Saturday, Sunday, Monday will be a day off. Tuesday is going to be a physically long practice. Wednesday will be walkthrough only, and then Thursday we'll essentially play a game."

Game intensity is how the whole roster is ready to approach things.

It may be the last time the starters come close to seeing real bullets fly ahead of the opener on Sept. 13.

"I think for our guys, when they are in the locker room, we go to the practice field. It feels like a game to them," Taylor stated. "It's another opponent that we haven't seen in practice for the last three weeks, and so they'll be excited to go do this. There's a lot of that energy and tempo that's going to come with that, and we'll get a chance to check the box on about every different situation that comes up in practice: normal downs, third down, red zone, end of game, two-minute, four-minute.

"So I know our guys will be excited for it and we'll treat it like we would a game. It's just a more controlled environment. You get a chance to make sure you're hitting certain situations and getting guys certain reps for certain looks. So it's good. It's a good change of pace for camp. I think for our guys, something to look forward to, something to do here at our home field, and it'll be good practice for us."

A huge week on deck for the 2026 roles across Cincinnati's roster.

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