Khalid Kareem gets IR-return designation

Kareem has been recovering from a shoulder injury that cost him much of training camp and the preseason.

The Cincinnati Bengals have cleared defensive end Khalid Kareem to return to practice by designating him for return from injured reserve, the team announced Wednesday.

Kareem has been on IR since September 2nd with a shoulder injury. Today starts a 21-day period during which he may practice with the team without counting against the 53-player active roster. He is eligible to be activated to the roster at any time during that period.

A second-year player out of Notre Dame, Kareem was a fifth-round pick by the Bengals in the 2020 NFL Draft and played in all 16 games as a rookie. However, he suffered a shoulder this past offseason, which caused him to miss a few weeks of training camp and the first two weeks of the preseason. He did end up playing in the preseason finale but re-aggravated his injury after just 11 snaps.

Kareem was kept on the initial 53-man roster so he could immediately go on IR and remain eligible for the IR-return designation after three weeks. It’s been six weeks since he went on IR, so Kareem is hopefully fully healthy now and ready to help a Bengals pass rush that’s been struggling outside of Trey Hendrickson.