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Zac Taylor's Preseason Plan for Bengals Starters Comes With a Risk
0 Share Newsweek is a Trust Project member See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. Preseason is typically a time for starters to get some added rest before the games begin to matter — and that's been especially true for the Cincinnati Bengals over the years.
Head coach Zac Taylor has historically rested or sparingly used key starters like Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase, and Tee Higgins to avoid serious injuries before the regular season kicks off.
Last year, though, he took a different approach, allowing the Bengals' stars to see some early preseason action. Cincinnati had repeatedly gotten off to slow starts in the regular season, and the idea was that playing starters earlier could help combat that. This year, the approach appears to be the same. Asked Thursday how much he expects the starters to play, Taylor said, "I'm not ready to go there yet, but they will play a little bit. We'll just determine how much at a later date."
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The strategy paid off, at least initially, in 2025. The Bengals' starters saw minutes early in the preseason, and Cincinnati opened the regular season with back-to-back wins over the Cleveland Browns and Jacksonville Jaguars — the first 2-0 start of Taylor's tenure as head coach.
But they then dropped their next four games in a row. Worse, Burrow suffered a brutal turf toe injury in that second game, an injury that required surgery and kept him sidelined for the next two months. The Bengals finished 6-11 and missed the playoffs for a third straight year.
Burrow is healthy now and has been a full participant in training camp, but the risk here is obvious. He saw action earlier than usual last year and suffered a serious injury just two games into the regular season. A repeat of that scenario would be devastating for a Bengals team with legitimate Super Bowl aspirations.
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There's a good chance Burrow and the other starters only play a handful of series before heading to the bench. But the risk is real — and worth noting for a franchise quarterback who missed over half of last season due to injury.
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