The Bengals are 6-0, as healthy as a team six games into a season can be and get this weekend to rest before a Nov. 1 game at Pittsburgh that could potentially create a whole bunch of separation between the Bengals and the rest of the AFC North.
They might be getting reinforcements, too.
Linebacker Vontaze Burfict and first-round offensive tackle Cedric Ogbuehi are still working with trainers this week as their teammates have been dismissed for a long weekend. Thursday, Bengals coach Marvin Lewis told Sirius XM Radio that Burfict and Ogbuehi are facing “a couple critical days….to not have any setbacks” that could determine whether they’re able to be on the practice field with their teammates on Monday.
“They see themselves having turned the corner,” Lewis said. “Every day they have in rehab is important.”
Burfict is on PUP due to a knee injury, and Ogbuehi is on the non-football injured list after he tore his ACL in his final college game last December.
Burfict had microfracture surgery last January. In September, he vowed to be ready for the Bengals’ Nov. 1 game at Pittsburgh.
That seems unlikely now, but what Lewis said indicates the Bengals believe he can come back later in November. The Bengals have until Dec. 1 to activate Burfict and Ogbuehi — or three weeks from when they officially return to the practice field.
“We’re impressed with where they are in the process,” Lewis said. “Now we’re just trying to transition them as close as we can to make them ready to eventually come back and handle the rigors of football practice.
“We do feel good about their progress.”