What Bengals media has to say about the Packers after joint practice

Here’s another perspective on the 2023 Green Bay Packers.

In our practice news and note earlier, we covered what the Green Bay media had to say about the Packers’ day of joint practice with the Cincinnati Bengals — their first opponent of the preseason. Now, let’s take a look at how the Bengals’ media reacted to the practice, giving us another perspective on what happened on Wednesday.

First of all, let’s touch on the Elgton Jenkins vs DJ Reader saga. Jenkins, the Packers’ starting left guard, got in a pair of scuffles today. The first began when he sat down linebacker Germaine Pratt on a screen pass, which started a skirmish between both teams. Less than five minutes later, Jenkins got into it with Readers, which led to Jenkins’ ejection from practice.

Reader would later tweet that Jenkins was a “JAG” (an acronym for “just another guy”) and spoke to the Packers’ local media about the encounter. According to ESPN’s Rob Demovsky, Reader told him, “Man, he’s a JAG, man. I don’t know that guy. No idea who he is. I mean, I see he’s made two Pro Bowls, do good for him, but he blocked for Aaron Rodgers. That don’t make you nobody.” Well, alright then. Here was Jenkins’ response:

Reader would also go on to describe the Packers’ offense a little bit in the locker room following Wednesday’s practice. According to him, Green Bay runs “a lot of RPOs, play-action type things.” If you wanted a perspective on Matt LaFleur’s offensive identity from an opposing defender, there you have it.

Aside from a couple of deep throws to receiver Romeo Doubs, quarterback Jordan Love hasn’t pulled the trigger on too many shot plays throughout training camp. That didn’t change today, as the throw of the day was easily a 60-yard throw and catch from Love to Doubs in team drills.

Pro Football Focus is based in Cincinnati, so PFF’s Sam Monson and Steve Palazzolo took the short drive from the office to the joint practice today. Here’s what Monson had to say about Love’s performance:

Monson also praised Doubs for his effort in practice today and said, before his scuffle with Jenkins, that Reader was “ruining virtually every run play.” Palazzolo noted that tight end Luke Musgrave spent a lot of his time on the field today split out as a receiver. That tracks with how Musgrave was used on Family Night, when he saw about half of his snaps as an outside target in team drills.

With Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow (calf) out of practice, every Cincinnati signal-caller was forced one line up on the depth chart. Unsurprisingly, according to Bengals content creator Joe Goodberry, the Cincinnati quarterbacks struggled today. Per Goodberry, the first-team offense “cannot move the ball” against Green Bay’s defense and, at one point, the second-team offense was losing more yards than they were gaining. Goodberry also shouted out rookie first-round pick Lukas Van Ness, who he said beat 2021 second-round pick Jackson Carman multiple times in one-on-one drills.

The last Bengals media member we’re going to include in this post is Kelsey Conway, who covers the team for the Cincinnati Enquirer. Conway mentioned that Bengals right tackle Jonah Williams had a good day against Packers starting outside linebacker Preston Smith in one-on-one drills. She was also one of many reporters on the scene who said that Green Bay’s offensive line had trouble blocking up Cincinnati defensive end Trey Hendrickson in team periods. For as much praise as the Packers’ defense got for slowing down the Bengals’ backup quarterbacks today, it seems like Cincinnati was winning on both sides of the line of scrimmage.

Update:

Here are a few more tweets about the Packers that I’d like to share.