The first team offense gets ready to snap to it Sunday at West Carrollton High School.

Dre Kirkpatrick may have forgotten his cleats for the Sunday afternoon practice at West Carrollton High School, but the Bengals remembered to bring veteran wide receiver Brandon LaFell for his first full practice since he suffered ligament damage in his right hand nearly two weeks ago.

Before a standing room-only crowd of about 6,300 LaFell lined up with the first team and wide receivers coach James Urban said they'll start monitoring to see if he'll be able to handle starting duties with the injury in the Sept. 11 opener.

"That's why we're doing it now to see how things go," said Urban after practice. "Tomorrow I would expect him to be considerably better as far as alignment, assignment, and get-off and shaking off the dust of running routes again. I saw a little bit of rust he has to shake off. Hopefully he'll be better tomorrow than he was today."

Kirkpatrick's day was saved by a Pirate, specifically Brian Jones of the West Carrollton Pirates and he's going to get a care package in the coming days from the Bengals starting cornerback.

As they were about to take the Pirates field, Kirkpatrick realized he didn't pack his size 12 cleats for the ride up I-75. After he saw head coach Marvin Lewis address the West Carrollton players in the gym, Kirkpatrick asked around and Jones offered his size 13s, a pair that Kirkpatrick signed when he gave them back.

"They were too big. I had to keep getting them taped (during the practice)," said Kirkpatrick as left the field in his socks. "It was a blessing he was there."

SLANTS AND SCREENS: Lewis had no update on right tackle Jake Fisher, who suffered a lower leg injury Thursday in Detroit. Lewis termed it "a sprained ankle," so he's definitely not playing next Sunday in Jacksonville and was nowhere to be found this Sunday. Neither was the man Fisher replaced, starting right tackle Cedric Ogbuehi (toe). WILL linebacker Vontaze Burfict, who has been practicing but not playing in games, also didn't make the trip ...

"We had 10 guys we left at home," said Lewis and he was talkng about guys ranging from wide receiver Mario Alford (ankle), cornerback Darqueze Dennard (ankle) and guard Alex Redmond (unknown) to guys who have been hurt virtually all or most of camp in tight ends Tyler Eifert (ankle), and Tyler Kroft (knee). Rookies William Jackson (pectoral) and Andrew Billings (knee) are expected to go on injured reserve when they cut to 75 players on Aug. 30 ...

Kicker Zach Hocker (ankle) who got hurt in the first few days of training camp, was back at practice Sunday and it's expected he'll kick in Jacksonville ...

"It's good to come up here. It's good to practice in a different spot," said Lewis of the trip north. "Sometimes things change in the schedule and so forth and we have to adjust and guys have to be able to come out and focus and go to work and do their thing, get their job done, do it right, execute right. It's good to have these opportunities at times ...