Bengals Camp — Sep 3: Stewart Practiced in Pads

Shemar Stewart practiced in pads on Wednesday. On Tuesday Zac Taylor had said "Shemar will stay on the rehab field this week, and we'll just take him week to week," per Dave Clark at the Cincinnati Enquirer, and Stewart ran on the rehab field that afternoon. On Wednesday he was in uniform doing position drills, without a knee brace, for the first time since hyperextending the knee on July 29 — the second rep of team drills in the opening week of camp, in a collision with Cody Ford, per Russell Heltman at Bengals On SI. Stewart, per Jay Morrison at Bengals On SI: "Injuries suck," and on the day, "It made me feel good. It's very meaningful." Asked whether Tampa Bay is possible: "That's not up to me. It's up to the training staff." Our last episode carried Heltman's read of the decision to keep him on the 53 rather than a reserve list — the door left open for a first-month return. Wednesday is the first evidence for it, and one thing to fix on the page: we called Stewart a rookie edge rusher. He is a second-year player, the seventeenth pick of the 2025 draft, eight games and five starts before a November knee injury ended that season.

Cincinnati's one waiver claim went to the one job Taylor will not call settled. The Bengals were awarded tackle Myles Hinton from Philadelphia on Monday, per Josh Alper at Pro Football Talk — a sixth-round pick out of Michigan, 24, no regular-season snap yet, a rookie season on injured reserve, and six preseason games at left tackle across two summers, with five pressures allowed on a hundred 39 pass-blocking snaps by the charting outfit Pro Football Focus, per John Sheeran at A to Z Sports. Heltman notes the team passed on three other available tackles — Cameron Williams, Chukwuebuka Godrick, Jarrett Kingston — while holding better waiver priority. The line kept nine on the initial 53, four of them tackles — Orlando Brown Jr. and Amarius Mims starting, Javon Foster and Jalen Rivers behind them, per Alper. Hinton is the fifth tackle and the tenth lineman. The spot came from tight end Tanner Hudson, whose contract was terminated Monday, per the team's transaction log — a surprise on the beat, because Hudson had signed an extension this offseason — and who was back on the practice squad Tuesday. Taylor on the swing tackle: "I think we're still competing there," and "I can let them compete every week for the rest of the season." What he wants from it: "Consistency," and "Just trust that the backup tackle is going to go in and win the game." The last practice-squad signing was another swing at it: tackle Blake Freeland, Indianapolis's 2023 fourth-round pick, 25 games and nine starts across two seasons, all of last year on injured reserve with a leg — more starting experience than any of the three competing for the swing job, per Sheeran.

The practice squad is Cincinnati's own camp, +3 from outside. 11 signed Monday, per the team, all of them in camp here: running back Kentrel Bullock, quarterback Sean Clifford, defensive tackle Howard Cross III, defensive end Isaiah Foskey — three sacks and 11 pressures across the preseason, per Anthony Cosenza at SB Nation, the best player the team cut by his ranking — linebackers Joe Giles-Harris and Shaka Heyward, cornerback Bralyn Lux, running back Kendall Milton, receivers Jordan Moore and Noah Thomas, and safety Russ Yeast. Five on Tuesday: cornerback Trikweze Bridges, Dallas's 2025 seventh-rounder with 16 games and an interception last season; tackle Freeland; tight end Hudson; quarterback Josh Johnson; and defensive end Garmon Randolph, a year on the Chargers' practice squad. 16 as of Tuesday, by the team's own announcements. Johnson was the omission Morrison found interesting, and Morrison's read was that the team was giving him a window to find a 53 somewhere. Taylor, quoted by Morrison: "I would love that for Josh. However it plays out with Josh, he has been such a pro. We're really proud of him." Nobody bit; he is a Bengal again. So of the four vested veterans we told you were released to free agency Sunday, three were back within two days — Giles-Harris and Yeast Monday, Johnson Tuesday — and only running back Gary Brightwell has no reported destination.

Two cuts left the organization, both for other teams' practice squads. Receiver Mitchell Tinsley, 17 games and two touchdowns for Cincinnati last season per Clark, signed with Houston's practice squad, per Morrison. Tight end Cam Grandy, 13 games and seven starts over two years, and the man Morrison expected back as tight end insurance, signed with Minnesota's on Tuesday, per Craig Peters at the Vikings' site. No Bengal was claimed anywhere — Andrew Kerth's confirmed-claims table for Monday's waiver run has Cincinnati taking one player and losing none. Charlie Jones, the returner we said the team moved on from, went unclaimed with the rest, and no reporting this week places him anywhere. Neither does the tight end room have five: we told you Jack Endries made it alongside Mike Gesicki, Drew Sample, Hudson and Erick All Jr., which was true of the initial 53 and stopped being true Monday. It is four.

The reserve list is the two names from Sunday, per the team's log: guard Brian Parker II, with a knee, and cornerback Ja'Sir Taylor, with a hamstring, both on injured reserve with return designations — the option Cincinnati used on them and not on Stewart, per Morrison. Nothing was added through Tuesday. One more fix for the page: we said all seven draft picks made the initial roster. Parker, the hundred-80-ninth pick, was placed on injured reserve at the same cutdown, so six are on the 53 and the seventh is designated to return.

Taylor's read of the roster, per Pat Brennan at the Enquirer: "It was ultimately fun to put together because we feel like we're really deep, even going out to the practice squad." What jumps out: the defensive line, 11 kept, per WKRC's account of the same availability — "It's waves there. I think that's critical" — and some of the men released "would have been on the 53-man roster in other years." On Dohnte Meyers: "He has earned his way, that is for sure." Morrison's number a fan would not have guessed: four linebackers — Knight Jr., Carter, Burks, Bozeman — the fewest the franchise has carried since at least 2006.

Back in July we previewed Cincinnati as the rare team whose case was entirely causal — no luck to give back in last year's six-and-11, so the playoff argument came down to a healthy Burrow plus a defense rebuilt by checkbook from 20-ninth toward the middle. The floor under that argument: an offense nineteenth in expected points added per play — the measure of how much each snap moved the expected score — seventh running, 20-fourth throwing, and that 20-ninth-ranked defense. Cut day argued for nothing against the case. This week argued a little for it: the edge rusher Cincinnati spent a roster spot on rather than a reserve list is in pads, the roster lost nobody to a 53, and the only open job is the backup tackle. The July premise holds. Its first test is 10 days out, and the man it kept a roster spot for just ran without a brace.

Next is the Buccaneers, Sunday, September 13, at Paycor Stadium. What to watch: whether Stewart takes a team rep in game week, and who is the swing tackle on the first game-day roster. The Recap follows the game.

_Data via nflverse._