Brown was initially confirmed by the team to be dealing with a knee injury but NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported he suffered a strained calf and is dealing with a condition known as “tennis leg.” He stretched and watched drills during the first 30 minutes open to media Wednesday.
Stone was wearing a compression sleeve on his leg Monday, a day after he had to be carted off with an air cast on late in the game with a tibia injury. Taylor said he has a “pretty good contusion” on his shin, where he collided with Vonn Bell on a pass breakup.
“We’ll see,” Taylor said. “We’ll keep taking it day to day. … We’ll see how they get through the week of practice and make a decision from there.”
Taylor expected Stone would be sore but said Monday he has a chance to be ready to go this week against Philadelphia. Defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo said the free safety participated in a walkthrough Wednesday morning. Tycen Anderson, who has had a strong start to the season on special teams, is listed as Stone’s backup and could get an opportunity if Stone can’t play.
Cody Ford would fill in for Brown, if he is out Sunday, but the depth chart is pretty thin behind him after Jaxson Kirkland went on injured reserve with a torn biceps last week. The Bengals signed rookie Andrew Coker, a college free agent signee for Las Vegas in May. He was waived with final cuts and has not been with an NFL team since then.
Sunday’s game is a big one for Cincinnati with a chance to get back to .500 with a third straight win, but Taylor said he doesn’t phrase it that way in team meetings.
“It’s just important to find a win from week-to-week,” Taylor said. “That’s just our sole focus is doing everything we can trying to make this plan come to life these next three days to where players believe in it. We’re making the right adjustments and finding a way to get a win. And whatever happens after that happens.”
The Bengals will be wearing their white helmets and all-white uniforms Sunday, and Taylor said he expects “the joint to be jumping” but had one request of the fans to help make things even more difficult on the Eagles offense.
“We rely so much on our fans,” Taylor said. “The energy when the players get introduced and come out of the gate, it never fails, our fan base. We’ve got to do a better job of taking control of the game and giving them something to cheer for from start to finish. We’re relying on them. It’s always good when we get a team at home. It can make it really hard on the cadence.
“The thing I always want to stress to the fans is as difficult as everything is, when the play clock starts at 40, and the quarterback is trying to hear the call from the coordinator before he calls it in the huddle, it’s not always just when you’re breaking the huddle and getting to the line with cadence. It’s as much as soon as that 40 second clock starts, that crowd level. You can waste seven or eight seconds in the huddle trying to hear the call, getting a repeated call, having to call it again because the tight end on the other side of the huddle can’t hear it. You can almost make a highlight tape of all the false starts, delays of game or timeouts used here by our rivals. That’s what I’m looking to, seeing our crowd do that and our players respond.”
About the Author