Left tackle Cordy Glenn emerged from the locker room to appear on the rehab field early in Wednesday's practice, but where that leaves him for Sunday's opener (4:05 P.M.-Cincinnati's Local 12) in Seattle is anyone's guess. Before practice head coach Zac Taylor said Glenn was still in concussion protocol and he's day-to-day.
Other than Glenn, wide receiver A.J. Green (ankle) and rookie running back Trayveon Williams (foot), it looked like everyone was healthy. Wide receiver Auden Tate (knee) was limited, but defensive tackle Andrew Brown (quad), safety Clayton Fejedelem (ankle), cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick (Achilles) and wide receiver John Ross (hamstring) went full go.
_In the Wednesday morning team meeting, Taylor announced the team vote for captains: Green, quarterback Andy Dalton and running back Giovani Bernard on offense, safety Shawn Williams and tackle Geno Atkins on defense and safety Clayton Fejedelem on special teams.
It marked a great 24 hours for Bernard. He signed his third contract Tuesday (a two-year extension reportedly worth about $10 million per year) and on Wednesday heard his teammates greet the news with the traditional player applause that consists of slapping palms on the tables. There's no question what means more.
"Being captain means a lot more than money," Bernard said before practice. "It's more about respect. That's one thing as a player, a teammate, coaches, opponents. It's what you want is respect."
Bernard admitted he was surprised, but honored.
"I've never been called out before like that. It took me aback because it's your teammates," he said. "I don't think about the money. I don't think about the attention. I just want to be here and help us win. For them to have that trust in me player-wise, it means more, for sure."
_Joe Mixon, the man Bernard complements and compliments, isn't a captain. But he showed last year amid the injury-plagued second half of the season he's willing to lead. And he plans to again.
"I feel like at the end of the day, my word as a player goes a long way," Mixon said. "I do the things that I'm supposed to do. When I say stuff to them, I don't think they mind going a little harder. Sometimes you might need that extra person to push somebody else. You never know. I know he can go harder or I know you can go harder. Why not push them to the limit?"
Mixon seems to think this is going to be a break-out year for him and that the rest of the NFL is going to find out what the Bengals already know.
I'm definitely not going to disrespect (other running backs). I definitely like a lot of running backs in this league," he said. "You've got elite guys, you've got front tier guys. At the end of the day I feel like I'm there with the best of them, if not the best."
_B.W. Webb, the Bengals' new slot corner, already made a big move before the game. He swapped numbers with cornerback Darius Phillips and is wearing No. 23, the number he had with the Giants last season, while Phillips gets No. 24, the number cornerback Adam Jones wore here for eight years.
"I feel like too many people think I'm Pacman. I need my own identity," said Webb, who admires how Jones played. "He's a dog, for sure, he's a dog. He goes all out."
Now he'd like to shut down some numbers Sunday, when he faces arguably the best slot receiver in the game in Tyler Lockett. According to profootballfocus.com, Lockett had an NFL-best five TDs in the slot, to go along with a 17.5-yard average in catching 26 of his 29 slot targets.
"Fast, quick. You have to know where he is and stay on him. Can't leave him," Webb said. "Russell (Wilson) uses his legs to keep plays alive, so we have to plaster him. He can catch the ball well down the field."
_In Seahawks coach Pete Carroll's Wednesday interview with Voice of the Bengals Dan Hoard, Hoard asked the 68-year-old Carroll about his first game as an NFL head coach as he prepares to face Taylor in his debut. The question came 25 years to the day of the 1994 NFL opener, when in his only season as the Jets head coach Carroll led them to a 23-3 victory in Buffalo.
"Very similar fashion. We played Buffalo on the road when they were in the middle of their run," Carroll said. "Good things can happen when you're a young coach if you get lucky and we got a little lucky that day. So hopefully we can hold them off. Zac is going to have a great career. It will be good to see the mentality he brings to his club and the scheme he brings. I'll be interested to see that."
As for the rookie coach having an advantage of a blank slate, Carroll offered, "There's a bit of uncertainty there. He can do whatever he wants, so we don't know. We watched them in preseason and tried to figure it out. We know his background with the Rams and when he was in college and they did a lot of different things. We'll have to see."
How vanilla were the August games?
"Pretty typical for their background," Carroll said. "They didn't tell you anything in preseason."
