Bengals HC Zac Taylor's post-bye week injury update on veteran starter is far from ideal
The Cincinnati Bengals are back from the bye week, but not everyone is in the building just yet. Two days before their Week 11 matchup against the Los Angeles Chargers, the Bengals traveled to the West Coast expecting defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins to play. Rankins ended up being a late addition to the injury report with […]
The Cincinnati Bengals are back from the bye week, but not everyone is in the building just yet.
Two days before their Week 11 matchup against the Los Angeles Chargers, the Bengals traveled to the West Coast expecting defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins to play. Rankins ended up being a late addition to the injury report with an illness and ended up not playing.
A full week later, Rankins did not participate in the Bengals' first practice coming off the bye week and was one of two players not present. Head coach Zac Taylor confirmed to reporters that Rankins is still under the weather from last week.
"Sheldon has a viral illness right now," Taylor said. "We'll keep working through that."
Taylor usually doesn't dive into specifics regarding recovery timetables for his players, so the ambiguity here isn't uncommon. But if Rankins is still not practicing after falling ill over a week ago, it stands to reason his availability for this past week would've been in doubt had there been a game.
Without knowing much more than this, it's concerning that Rankins has been dealing with illness for over a week now. The team flew out to Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 15, the same day the final injury report was posted. He wasn't added to the report until the next day after the team had arrived.
The good news is the Bengals have three more practices until they return to the field this Sunday against the Pittsburgh Steelers. There's still ample time for Rankins to recover from whatever illness has a hold of him, and the bye week can still save him from missing more than one game.
The other player to be in attendance Monday was edge defender Sam Hubbard, who was out due to a personal matter according to Taylor.
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