CINCINNATI (WKRC) – Bengals head coach Zac Taylor on Saturday updated a key defensive injury suffered in Thursday’s preseason opener, provided some other injury updates and how he thought the starting guards played among other items during his regularly-scheduled press conference before practice.

Taylor said safety Geno Stone is “week-to-week” with a soft tissue injury suffered in the first quarter of Thursday’s game at the Philadelphia Eagles. Taylor said he doesn’t expect Stone to play in the Bengals second preseason game at Washington on Aug. 18, but that he has no long-term concerns about Stone’s status.

Stone did not participate in Saturday’s practice and said afterward that he doesn’t expect to be out for an extended period of time.

The injury does bring into question the Bengals depth at safety. Jordan Battle, a 2023 third-round pick, is the other starter, and while he has had a good training camp, he was tied with Stone as the 136th-graded safety out of 171 from ProFootballFocus.com last season.

Behind them are 2024 seventh-round draft choice Daijahn Anthony, who played only 11 defensive snaps last season, and 2022 fifth-round pick Tycen Anderson, who has never played a regular-season defensive snap in his career. Both got first team reps on Saturday, but so did P.J. Jules, who spent last season on the practice squad after signing as an undrafted rookie free agent. Jules played well in a deep backup role at Philadelphia as he tied for the team high in tackles with six, all of which were solo stops, and then recorded an interception in an 11-on-11 session in Saturday’s practice. He received first teams reps in the lone team period remaining after that.

“I think that’s a group that we’re looking to make sure we’re deep enough there,” Taylor said of the safety position. “So they’re gonna continue to get a lot of opportunities, certainly with Geno being out. I think it’s a good chance to really see where they’re at in their development. They’ve got to contribute on special teams. They’ve got to prove that they can walk in there and help us on defense as well. Those are guys that these next six practices will be really good for.”

Cornerbacks Cam Taylor-Britt and Dax Hill both participated in Saturday’s practice after not dressing for Thursday’s game. Taylor-Britt has been dealing with leg issues throughout camp, while Hill is being managed as he recovers from knee surgery after suffering a season ending torn ACL early last season.

Defensive tackle BJ Hill, who is still being managed from a foot/ankle/leg injury suffered in the offseason program, and tight end Mike Gesicki, who tweaked his hamstring in practice on Aug. 2, also did not participate on Saturday.

Tight end Noah Fant, who was just signed on July 31 and had participated primarily in individual drill sessions until Saturday, was overcome by the heat and sat out for a short time, but returned to catch a touchdown pass during a red zone situation.

While it appears rookie third-round draft pick Dylan Fairchild has secured the starting spot at left guard, the right guard spot is still wide open as veteran free agent signee Lucas Patrick had a mixed performance as the starter in the opener. Veteran Cody Ford took first team reps at right guard the first week of practice, before giving way to Patrick, and then on Saturday Ford was moved to right tackle with the second team and rookie fifth-round pick Jalen Rivers got second team reps at right guard after playing both tackle spots with the second team in the first couple of weeks of camp.

Taylor said he was pleased with both Fairchild and Patrick in the preseason opener.

“It wasn’t a lot of snaps, but that (first) unit went down and scored two touchdowns, so they gave us what we needed,” said Taylor. “I still think there are things that we’ll look to improve as a group, but overall that was what you hoped for.”

As for the shakeup between Ford and Rivers, Taylor said not to read too much into that.

“Now is the time to look at all that stuff,” said Taylor. “These six — I say six this week, really these next four (practices), we’ll look at some different things with Cody (Ford) and Jaylen (Rivers) and make some decisions as we go, where we want to head. I think nothing is set in stone right now. There’s still a lot of opportunity. There are eight true practices and two games, so we’re going to utilize every one of them to gain all the information we can out of it.”

While in the past few seasons the Bengals have held joint practices with preseason opponents that is something they aren’t doing this season and Taylor said he believes it will be beneficial.

“I’m thankful this year we’re not doing that, because we’re going to get really good work in for six practices,” said Taylor. “We got some scrimmage situations. I think it’s really good for us to continue to put some install stuff in, tweak some stuff, as opposed to locking in on X opponent, that we’re gonna spend three days preparing for and practicing for and reviewing. We just get spend that on ourselves. I think that’s really needed right now for this group. I think that the way that this camp hit us this year with no practices against anybody else, just focusing on herself. I’m excited about it.”