Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow can be forgiven for not recalling Thursday that he has, indeed, played in an NFL preseason game.
Of course, his only three career preseason snaps in the 2021 finale against the Dolphins were totally forgettable, if not outright dangerous.
Slot receiver Tyler Boyd ran a botched reverse for two yards, a bunch formation for the receivers got blown up and so did nearly rookie Ja'Marr Chase on an incompletion, right tackle Riley Reiff was flagged 15 yards for roughness, and Burrow mercifully handed off to running back Joe Mixon for five yards to get out of there.
But despite the chaos, two weeks later Burrow won his only Opening Day start, so maybe that's why Thursday's news that head coach Zac Taylor is targeting Burrow and the starters for the Aug. 10 preseason opener at Paycor against the Buccaneers sits well.
"Those didn't exactly go great," Burrow said. "Those were just three plays to kind of get my feet wet, I guess. I don't think they were three plays that were really even in our offense. It'll be nice to have a full drive."
Taylor has talked about the preseason opener informally with his starters ("I'm not setting that in stone right now, but I'm optimistic that that's where it's trending for our team"), but when he looks at the brief 17 days between the opener and final cuts, which includes two joint practices, that seems to be as good as place as any to get snaps.
"We're just trying to make sure our team is prepared for the first week of the season, what work do we need to get done, and so these games factor into that," Taylor said.
Since Burrow didn't play in the previous two preseasons because of health, No. 1s such as wide receiver Tee Higgins didn't play either, so he's looking forward to playing in his third career preseason game.
"It's very important to get game-like reps," Higgins said after Thursday's practice. "You want game-like reps in practice, but you're going against the same guys every day, so it's good to go against a different opponent."
Burrow assures the next one won't be as chaotic as his lone preseason series.
"It won't be like that," Burrow said.
PLAYER OF THE DAY: WR Tee Higgins
It's really the first time Higgins has looked like Higgins this camp and that means he was terrific. Once he got his feet under him, he started grabbing the balls that had been bouncing off his hands.
Take in an early team drill on a day that baked in a humid 89 degrees when he hooked up with Burrow on a long floater down a left seam. Higgins had position on No. 1 cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt, but he paused before leaping to adjust to Burrow's throw, fired away from Taylor-Britt converging from his back.
"That really felt like a game rep. Cam always gives me good game rep," Higgins said. "Cam and I, we ball in camp. That's the kind of guy I want to make me better. Those one-one battles, that's what we're looking for. And Joe just put a great ball in the air and I was able to adjust."
Later in the practice, when the offense and defense were in a red zone lockout competition, the 6-4 Higgins converted third-and-three when he posted up the 5-9 Mike Hilton and won the rep with his signature big body move climbing the ladder.
"Zac called one of the plays where it's kind of a post-up play and Joe gave me a ball," Higgins said. "It was just me going to get a rebound."
Maybe not like one of those massive Bill Russell Game Seven rebounds he reserves for fourth quarters, but he's on his way.
"Excited to get my legs back. Finally got them back," Higgins said. "Finally getting into football. I missed OTAs, so I'm getting back in the groove."
PLAY OF THE DAY: S Daijahn Anthony
Anthony, the seventh-rounder from Ole Miss, had the first interception of camp last week and Thursday in seven-on-seven he gave Burrow his first interception of camp when he anticipated a deep out route to savvy seven-year vet tight end Mike Gesicki.
"That's crazy. For real?" Anthony said when the press told him he was the first guy to get Burrow after more than a week of ball. "He's a great quarterback so that doesn't surprise me."
It doesn't surprise the Bengals that Anthony and fifth-round cornerback Josh Newton of Texas Christian have come out of the rookie chute as quicky as they have. The fit the 'They Gotta Love Ball," Zac Taylor draft requirement and the Bengals knew when they scouted Anthony at the East-West Game he was their kind of guy.
"That was the first time we were able to spend a lot of time with him away from Ole Miss and we were really impressed with his personality and approach. He's got a lot of love and passion for the game and I think you're seeing that show up," said Trey Brown, the Bengals senior personnel executive.
Since Anthony had played all three spots in college at cornerback, slot cornerback, and safety, the scouts thought he'd be one of those versatile chess pieces for defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo's scheme, so they brought him into Paycor Stadium for one of the 30 pre-draft visits they're allowed.
When the coaches saw the same thing, the Bengals targeted Anthony as a get they wanted before the draft ended, so they grabbed him with the first of their two seventh-round picks.
"Trey was really on him from the jump and he's come in and he's really drinking from the fire hose because we're putting a lot on his plate,' said safety coach Jordan Kovacs. "He's a coachable guy, asking for more reps, more coaching."
That's what Anthony says he got in Thursday morning's walkthrough from not only Anarumo and Kovacs, but also the players familiar with playing the corner flat who aren't safeties, such as Mike Hilton and Jalen Davis, and that's the play Anthony picked. In order to ease him in and not overwhelm him with the playbook, they're leaving him at safety.
"I'm just reading No. 2 (receiver)," Anthony said. "If he breaks out, I have to break with him. I just broke with him."
The 6-0, 195-pound Anthony didn't back down working against the 6-6, 250-pound Gesicki. But then, as a slot cornerback at Mississippi, he's used to taking on all types of receivers. He says he matched up at times with current Bengals teammate Jermaine Burton when he was occasionally running in the slot at Alabama, as well as LSU's Malik Nabers, the No. 5 pick in the draft.
"Nabers caught a ball on me in a zone, but not in man-to-man," Anthony said. "(Burton) caught a ball, but I wasn't on the field."
Anthony says he thinks they'll line him up soon in individual drills as a slot cornerback to cover receivers one-on-one as they begin to test that versatility.
"At safety, you want guts who love ball and like to communicate and like talking," Brown said. "Like being in the action. That's him to a tee."
Anthony probably won't get another look from Burrow like that again. Certainly not in team.
"I'm trying to be a little more aggressive than I normally would in those situations," Burow of seven-on-seven after practice. "And then try to treat the team periods more game like than seven-on-seven. So we'll grow and learn from that rep. A lot went into that. Maybe I throw a couple that I don't normally in a 7 on 7, whereas in a team period I might take that and just progress."
QUOTE OF THE DAY
(or the daily Amarius Mims Update:)
Burrow on Mims:
"My feeling on that guy's pretty good right now. His mindset, his athleticism, his size, his willingness to be coached, grow and learn as is all in a plus. So Sky's limit for that guy, I'm really excited he's on our team."
SLANTS AND SCREENS: Mims got carted off early, after he didn't do one-on-one pass rush, but after practice said cheerily he'll be back Friday …
Rookie wide receiver Jermaine Burton missed a good chunk of practice, but he was walking through the locker room freely after it was over. Reports said he's fine and simply tweaked an ankle …
The fear is defensive lineman Cam Sample, the valuable edge/tackle, isn't so fine. He went down in a great deal of pain and had to be carted off …
Edges Sam Hubbard (knee) and Trey Hendrickson (unknown) didn't work ….
Wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase is still under Zac Taylor's plan and not practicing. But wide receiver Andrei Iosivas emulated him when Burrow muscled a third-and-three touchdown pass to him in the outer left edge of the end score for the score that sparked the offense's win over the defense in the red zone lock-out competition Taylor scores.
Burrow: "He was backside one-on-one. Really good route. That's a route that Ja'Marr, we've run that route a lot since LSU. That's a really good route. A great route for Yoshi being a big body, fast guy. He did a great job right there."
Iosivas got terrific separation from cornerback Dax Hill , not easy to do in that part of the field.
"We saw routes and route concepts and we watched the video and I just try pretty much to run it like (Chase) ran it," Iosivas said. "He's got great energy out there and he's always giving us tips … How we could have won or what we could have done better."
Iosivas may have used his big body, but what got the touchdown was his decision to catch the ball with that body. His gloves were soaked with sweat and every time he tried to wipe them off on his shorts, they got wetter. He didn't want to risk a hands catch where the ball would slither off his fingertips …
When the Bengals came back into the locker room after practice, the nine fans in each locker were whirring feverishly to dry the sweat from, gloves, helmets, and shoulder pads …
