Bengals already dealing with injuries to Riley Reiff, offensive line

The Cincinnati Bengals were never going to fully avoid the injury bug in training camp.

And after the first day in pads, it’s already popped up at a key area — the offensive line.

New starting right tackle Riley Reiff missed Tuesday’s padded practice after suffering an injury during an interception return that occurred on Monday. It’s a minor thing, but he’s now missing key snaps with the first-team offense right as everyone dons pads.

Backup tackle Fred Johnson also has a quad injury that will keep him out at least a week.

This might not sound like the biggest ordeal and indeed, these are minor issues. But missing two tackles meant fourth-round rookie D’Ante Smith got thrown to the wolves in practice. Viewed as a project with major upside in a few years, Smith got brutalized by first-team defenders and it didn’t help an offense already struggling against a game defense.

With any luck, Johnson and Reiff will be back soon to help stabilize things and this isn’t a sign of things to come. But it speaks to a depth issue when a rookie is the next guy up, so it’s something that might encourage the team to make another move on a free agent.

The Bengals hope Reiff is a big upgrade at right tackle and he’s never missed more than three games in a season, so they’re clearly hoping this goes away quick and is an anomaly.