Both injured Bengals tight ends planned to have a significant day in their rehabs while their teammates practiced Monday afternoon.

Tyler Eifert (ankle) and Tyler Kroft (knee) said they would try to jog outside after running on various apparatus indoors. No timetable has been set at they try to return as close as they can to the Sept. 11 opener in New Jersey against the Jets, but Eifert says the ankle he injured in the Pro Bowl "feels pretty good," and he says he has had no setbacks in his return from May surgery.

"I'm not ready to practice. I'm not ready for change of direction," Eifert said before practice. "But I'm doing multiple treatments a day and doing lifting and conditioning multiple times a day. I try to do as much as I possibly can so when I'm ready to play I'm in shape."

No one knows when that is, but so far so good.

Also Monday, right tackle Jake Fisher showed no limp at all as he walked around the locker room in a knee brace. He said the hope is he's tracking to be ready for the opener.

No. 1 slot cornerback Darqueze Dennard (ankle), who got hurt the first couple of days of training camp, surfaced in the locker room before practice Monday not wearing a boot.

And Dennard joined Eifert, Kroft and right tackle Cedric Ogbuehi on the rehab field during Monday's practice, jogging and running through ropes with 20 days until the opener. So it's doubtful any of them play Sunday (8 p.m.-Cincinnati's Channel 5) in Jacksonville and in the final pre-season game Sept. 1 at Paul Brown Stadium against the Colts ...

Fisher's homecoming in Detroit didn't exactly go as planned last Thursday when he drew the start for Ogbuehi. On the ninth play he got his knee rolled up as often happens in the trenches, but he seems to have almost a certain serenity that it wasn't worse.

"It happens. It's football," Fisher said. "I got pretty lucky with what happened. Take every day and be grateful for what you got."

It appears to be a mild sprain, but it's not the way it looked or felt in the moments after he twisted on the ground.

"On the initial step I felt pain, but I'm glad I'll be back here shortly," Fisher said.

Fisher says "a couple of weeks,' which would have him ready for the Jets.

SLANTS AND SCREENS: The Bengals worked for two hours in full pads before a group of season ticket holders on the Paul Brown Stadium practice fields, but there wasn't a lot of hitting. In fact, there was virtually none with the first week of prep for an opponent focusing on work against the scout teams ...

The Bengals are now on a regular-season schedule, thanks to the Sunday game. They're off Tuesday, practice Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning before having a recovery day off stretching Friday and a brisk walk-through on Saturday. Then they're back on a goofy sked the next week because of the Thursday night pre-season finale on Sept. 1 ....