It’s that time of year again! Football has arrived and the regular season is just around the corner. But you won’t have to wait until September to see Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, and co. on the field because the Bengals will be playing their starters in this years preseason-opener on Thursday against the Lions.
Head Coach Zac Taylor announced the news this past Thursday. He wasn’t sure how long or how many drives the starters will play but expect 1-2 in this game.
The Bengals went with this strategy last season and it worked pretty well after starting the season off 2-0 for the first time in Zac Taylor’s coaching career. Unfortunately in the week two matchup against Jacksonville, Burrow went down with a toe injury, which sidelined him for a little over two months and missing nine games on top of that.
The idea of playing starters in the preseason is to help start off faster early in the season, which has been something Cincinnati has been unable to do since Zac Taylor was named head coach back in 2020. The injury risk is definitely there and when you see Burrow and others in a meaningless game it’s hard not to hold your breath every time somone takes a hit. It hasn’t been determined how many games they’ll play either but don’t be surprised if they play in all but the preseason finale in Philadelphia.
Hopefully Cincinnati can get off to another hot start just like they did last year without losing any game changers in the preaseason or the regular season.
Here’s what Taylor had to say about playing the starters:
“They will play a little bit. We’ll just determine how much at a later date.”
