The Bengals were cautious during Week 1 of the preseason as they held out several key players from even playing at all.
There isn’t anything wrong with that. I think everyone can agree we’d rather see the starters healthy for the regular season rather than miss a few weeks due to a meaningless game.
With that said, there is a delicate balance to giving your players some in-game snaps to help acclimate them to the upcoming season, so you can’t hold them out for the whole preseason.
Clearly head coach Zac Taylor understands that as he talks about the list of players who may be held out of Thursday’s game.