Zac Taylor on which Bengals are expected to sit out vs. Buccaneers

The offensive tackle situation will be interesting to watch Saturday.

As expected, Bengals QB Joe Burrow will not play in Saturday’s preseason opener vs. the Buccaneers.

Today, head coach Zac Taylor announced that Burrow, center Trey Hopkins, offensive tackle Fred Johnson and defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi will not play this weekend, according to Paul Dehner.

Burrow was already expected to sit this one out, as Bengals owner Mike Brown previously said the franchise QB is unlikely to play this preseason. While he’s fully recovered from his torn ACL, the Bengals are still being super cautious with Burrow heading into what hopes to be a 2021 season that sees him truly establish himself as an elite NFL signal-caller.

It’s a similar situation with Hopkins, who is also recovering from a torn ACL, though he too has been a full participant in training camp thus far. Look for Billy Price to start at center and rookie draft pick Trey Hill to get some good run as well.

Ogunjobi, who was signed this offseason from the Browns, opened camp on the PUP list with a hamstring injury. He was taken off it Tuesday and has been shining in practice since then, but the team believes it’s still too soon to put him in a live game.

As for Johnson, he’s dealing with a quad injury that cost him several days of practice before he returned Wednesday. It will be interesting to see how the tackle situation plays out Saturday once Jonah Williams and Riley Reiff are out of the game. Isaiah Prince and Gunnar Vogel are the only other true tackles on the roster, though rookie draft picks D’Ante Smith and Jackson Carman played tackle in college before being moved to guard.

Of course, there will be more names added to the not expected to play list Saturday for various reasons, but these are the guys we know for sure aren’t playing.