CINCINNATI — Amarius Mims knows all he can do at this point is do everything in his power to get better.
The rookie first-round behemoth of a right tackle suffered a strained pectoral muscle during Saturday’s preseason opener. He told the medical staff after the game and they took an image and found the fairly minor issue. Fairly minor because it doesn’t require surgery but significant enough that in order for it to heal properly, Mims will need to sit out “several” weeks per head coach Zac Taylor.
That means fellow veteran behemoth Trent Brown – the tackle brought in on a one-year deal – will take his reps. Ironically, Brown came off the NFI list last week and was scheduled to take his first team reps Monday. As it turned out, he jumped right in with the first unit at right tackle.
Zac Taylor put it all in perspective Monday.
“We’ve been in situations where we’ve had a lot worse news than this,” the Bengals head coach said. “He’s done everything he can to put himself in position to be a great player for us immediately. This is just an extremely minor setback, short-term wise, and expect to make a great recovery. It really remains to be seen how quickly he’ll get back. I don’t want to my foot in my mouth and give you all a timeline, because that’s an impossible situation to be in, but optimistic we’ll get him back in several weeks.”
On Tuesday, Taylor revealed that back-up quarterback Jake Browning suffered a rib injury and will be out this Saturday against the Bears. That leaves Logan Woodside and Rocky Lombardi to handle the signal-calling duties for the Bengals at Soldier Field, as Taylor said on Monday that Joe Burrow’s work will be limited to joint practice on Thursday in Lake Forest, Ill.
Browning appeared in nine games last season, with seven starts following Joe Burrow’s wrist injury in Week 11 at Baltimore. Browning completed 171 of 243 passes for 1,936 yards, 12 touchdown passes, and seven interceptions.
There’s no specific timetable for Browning’s return.
Woodside, the seventh round pick of the Bengals in 2018, went 3-0 as a preseason starter with the Falcons and the Titans.
Woodside connected on seven of his first eight passes and the go-ahead touchdown from 38 yards to rookie wide receiver Jermaine Burton with 3:33 left that gave the Bengals a short-lived 14-10 lead before they fell 17-14 to Tampa Bay.
There is also injury in the special teams area as punter Brad Robbins left practice Tuesday when he got hurt in a kickoff drill. That means rookie free agent punter Ryan Rehkow out of BYU is going to go solo in Thursday’s joint practice and game after splitting duties last Saturday against Tampa Bay.
Camp Observations Days 13-14:
