Zac Taylor on Bengals Bye Week, Injury Updates and More Ahead of Week 7 Matchup vs Ravens

Yeah, I think he's progressing along, and so we'll kind of see where he's at. What about Cassius Howell? Sick. He's sick? Yeah. What was the kind of, what did you do as a coach and staff during the bye? What was kind of on the itinerary that you wanted to check off going into this week? A couple things. We just looked at ourselves, got ahead on Baltimore. So I think two things that made sense in a week six bye. Is there something when you look at AFC North games that, whether it's a stat or a style, that's more important to you guys to be better at in these games than maybe others on the schedule? More important? I mean, the turnovers is what screams at you. That leads in field position. So to say that's much different than other games we play, there's obviously you know so much more about these teams, about these players. Obviously they've got new schemes, but there's still a lot of similarities from the past. They've got great players, great coaching staff. It's exciting. I think our guys really get fired up for this game. Not that they don't get fired up for every game, but every point in Baltimore in a divisional game, it's a fun one to get up for and our guys will be up for it. Last year after the strides, obviously the difference is earlier this year, but are you hopeful that whether it be offense or defense that you kind of see the identity really come forward after the last game? I think certainly we've had our moments in all three phases that you feel like this is who we're going to be, and now it's just putting the complete game together in all three phases. And I don't know that it's uncommon coming into October and feeling that way, but that is certainly coming out of the bye with the stretch that we got in front of us to just come together in all three phases for a complete game. And I feel like that's coming. What stood out to you about Jesse Minter when he's brought over and when he's kind of brought back? Really smart. He's got a lot of confidence. I think the players respect him and have confidence in him. Did a great job when he was at the Chargers. You know, we played them a couple years ago. So you can just tell he's somebody in the industry that has always been well thought of. and players have always had respect for him, and so it's no surprise that he's jumped right into the fray and is doing well over there. With Tanner going out, do you think, Eric, does he get more reps in the passing game, more targets? I think we'll call on the whole room and the receiver room. We're getting healthy at the receiver room too. So I think just combining both those rooms and dispersing how those roles will play out is something we're always open to week to week. We feel like we've got a lot of people with a lot of different strengths that can all play at a high level in both those rooms and just finding ways to game plan for those guys, get them all involved is important for us. I know you've talked a lot about Eric's physicality and what he does in the run game play, but he's kind of a sneaky YAC guy after the catch. Sure. Yeah, he's a physical player. I think when he's got the ball in his hands, he looks to bring that physicality and try to do what he can after the catch. Is that just your potential candidate to come back on the 53? We'll see. we'll keep working out all those guys that are on IR and seeing how they're progressing. You had him on your side for the past couple years. How difficult is it to scheme against Trey? He's a good player. So again, they've got a lot of good players in their defense. We've got to put together a great plan and be able to execute it to give ourselves the best chance to win. Maybe you talked about the role he could have had before his injury. Can you reassume that? I think so. He's looked as good as he's looked in a long time you know i think last week he had a good week on what he could handle from a rehab perspective um so this week to get him back involved he looked good running around today so i think it's good to finally get him back and feel like he's he's closer to 100 health how similar is some of the stuff your bigger receivers do to what Tanner does like not that they're interchangeable but do they do a lot of similar stuff yes and no um you know you do put them in a little bit different position when they're not playing why like tanner plays sometimes he can will play and have for us and so that role is very similar to what our receivers are doing um so it doesn't you know to lose tanner and get colby back in some ways does help because in some ways they they can they can play some similar roles in some situations ryan cook played a couple of these games missed a couple how much of a difference have you noticed coming when he's out there good things seem to happen yeah i think he feels a lot better now you know coming off the bye week moving around today watching him move around um i think the confidence of being closer to 100 i hate to put a percentage on him but i i think he feels a lot better than he probably did two weeks ago three weeks ago and um so it's good to get him back closer to full strength how big can his tackling just all that stuff be against Baltimore I think big time you know it's yeah they're they're obviously backs for very physical players um quarterback whoever plays you know is obviously elusive and so you got to be sure tacklers and um the communication has got to be a big part of it you know with with just the way that they formulate their offense and try to attack you. That's a big key of it. So I think having a veteran player back there can help with all that. With the early bye and knowing you're not going to have another break until maybe a possible playoff bye, does it change your approach on how you handle guys' workload coming down the second half? Not necessarily in the games, no. We're going to do everything we can to win. Does it change their workload during practice? Potentially. I think we've done a good job of that so far during the season with some of the guys that are more veteran. So we're never shy away from helping guys during the week that maybe don't need the physical reps and we need them healthy on Sunday. Obviously strange weeks coming forward at us and so we'll do a great job just with the schedule and trying to keep it off those guys as best we can. Do you feel like at this point in the season you've got a good sense of what your identity is on offense? Yes. If there's a way to verbalize that, what do you feel like? Trying to put ourselves in a great position to score points on every drive. That's our number one key right now. I know you guys take, like, a week-by-week approach and you don't look past your opponent, but how often do you in your revision rankings? Occasionally. You know, not every week, but I think it is take a snapshot of where things are across the league. Do I do it every week? No, but I don't think there's anything negative to it when you just show, hey, here's where we're at, you know, and maybe it can be awful off sometimes, you know, early in the season. Like, yeah, it feels bad right now, But here's where we are in relation to everybody else. It takes one week to change that narrative, change how you feel, put yourself right back into things. It's still too early for that stuff to matter right now. But to say that I've never done that, I wouldn't say that. What did you make of yesterday? You guys are all kind of muddled together, but you're just saying one week. It's still too early, but one week. Yeah, the divisional games are always big. So I think that's our focus right now is just go on the road, tremendous opportunity to go on the road versus a great team, and find a way to get a win and put yourself in a good position. But if we don't focus on the details all week, then none of that's going to matter. So I think these guys, they understand that. We've said that over and over again. But, A, I'm excited to go on the road. Tremendous opportunity right in front of us. Again, I think when two great teams play each other, it always makes for a fun game. So I look forward to the week of prep and see how we end up on Sunday. Talk about going on the road in the division. I think the last time we played these guys in the light of day. Never. Never. That was five years ago, which was a big game in the life of this franchise, really. I mean, that was kind of, you know, Barlow had a bust out, and so did Germano. I mean, what do you remember about that game? Seven-man protection. That was our first game we introduced seven-man protection. You know, and Cowley, I remember a lot about that week. And Samaje had a big run at the end of the game, kind of ice in four minutes. But, yeah, that was the last time I think I've seen daylight in Baltimore. So, yeah, this feels a little different. but how significant of a win was that do you think that kind of proved a lot to your team i think absolutely you know we hadn't really won uh i guess we won at Pittsburgh that year before that but um they have been the team you know at that moment in time i think they'd probably won it the last two years 2019 to 20 so it's hard to go back all that but yeah i think that was a significant one for us to um win there which we hadn't done in two years and get on the plane and enjoy that and um it was probably at the point in the year where it was good to get a win like that to our guys to to um verify the confidence they had you know we we thought we were a good team and it kind of solidified that for us now we had to go play a bunch of other games after that but um yeah that was that was a big game for us back then that was one of the bigger games i think we've ever won in my time here does your team need that now verifying the confidence i don't think so i i think because we've now played enough games but that team that was still a relatively young team for for us for just probably age-wise in general um so i think there's there's years and moments where you need that stuff i don't think this is a team that has to have that um i really want it but but i i don't know that it's the same position that we were in back in what made jack kaiser a good fit with swayze out somebody we'd always had our eye on you know dating back to the draft and um got taken in jacksonville before you know before it came to us and um obviously he's got good rapport with several of the guys on our staff, so he understands the defense able to come in there. You've got a guy that you know can come and fit in immediately. Somebody we've always liked. Someone who's got a relationship with their staff. Someone whose tape we've always liked when he's been in the league. It works out well, and we're happy to have him. Moving forward, what do you think the key is to getting more explosives than maybe you've had so far this season? Just keeping it detailed and, again, just trying to get points on the board.