We’ve reached the stage of Cincinnati Bengals training camp where pads are popping.

Monday, July 28, saw the Bengals in pads for the first time this training camp, and that came 10 days and six practice sessions away from the club’s preseason opener at the Philadelphia Eagles on Aug. 7.

Suffice it to say you can expect things to get more interesting and intense in the coming days, although Bengals head coach Zac Taylor is still waiting to make any sweeping judgements about individuals and units because of the early stage of camp Cincinnati is in.

Taylor said he likes to wait for several preseason games to be played before making firm assessments. That being said, it won’t be long until we’re at that point in camp.

Here’s what we saw and learned from Day Five of Bengals training camp:

First padded practice begets intensity for Bengals

In his pre-practice remarks to media, Taylor assessed that bringing out the pads for the first time this summer would mean things get a lot more physical. The physicality produced a generally more intense practice session, too.

The summer heat had made things physically and mentally taxing in training camp up until Monday, but things got ratcheted when the contact became more intentional and pronounced.

The practice was interrupted by storms and moved indoors around 11 a.m. After that point, the defense did a lot of hollering.

Demetrius Knight Jr., who called the Bengals’ defense “nasty,” was in on what he described as a near-sack of Joe Burrow, and that might have produced the loudest round of whooping from the defense.

“The hunger and the pads coming on but definitely just being able to get after each other and truly being able to sharpen each other in every way today,” Knight said.

The media vantage point for much of the indoor portion of the practice was partially blocked, and some media observers declared the defense the winners of the day, but the offense got its shots in, too. Chase Brown broke several runs in 11-on-11, and Jordan Moore had a long reception for a touchdown late in the morning.

Shemar Stewart made an impact on his second day of camp

As the Bengals’ first-round draft selection at a critical edge-rushing position, a lot of focus is going to be on Shemar Stewart even after he got his rookie contract done and made his training camp debut on Sunday, July 27.

Two things of note involving Stewart occurred Monday: First, Taylor said he wasn’t ruling Stewart out from playing in the Aug. 7 preseason opener at Philadelphia. The second noteworthy item on Stewart was he had the kind of practice Monday morning that would lead you to think he’s building momentum toward playing at Lincoln Financial Field against the defending Super Bowl champions.

Stewart broke up two passes by backup quarterback Jake Browning on back-to-back plays inside the practice bubble. On the second of those, he broke into Browning’s backfield all but uncontested, then seemed to partially pull out of his rush and threw his hands up to clog the passing lanes. Not bad for Day Two as a professional.

Zac Taylor’s thoughts on kicker Evan McPherson

OK, so let’s first back track. We reported July 27 that Evan McPherson missed his first field goal of camp, and he did miss one. And noting that was intended to be a positive, as in it took four days of training camp before McPherson missed a kick. The important context there is that McPherson was coming off a 2024-25 season of injury and inconsistency.

Well, apparently some media observers aren’t considering the July 27 misfire as an official miss. Others did at the time. Who’s to say? They don’t produce a box score for camp practices, at least not for public consumption.

When McPherson missed indoors on Monday, some said that was his first official miss. Whatever. The point here is that McPherson has started his training camp brightly.

“He’d doing a good job,” Taylor said. “The team’s got a lot of confidence in him. That’s never wavered for us.”

What McPherson’s doing now is important. How many times did a Bengals kicker have the outcome of a game riding on their kicks? It seemed like enough for McPherson (and backup Cade York later in the year) that the misses and inconsistencies led to some intense scrutiny.

Training camp statistics are of very questionable value but unlike other areas, how a kicker is performing and trending in late July might be worth keeping tabs on. So, regardless of when McPherson’s first official miss occurred, people are pointing this stuff out because he isn’t missing much.