Bengals injury report provides major reason for optimism ahead of game vs. Eagles

At this point in the season, NFL injury reports are often laundry-list long, as players are dealing with all sorts of bangs and bruises after two months of on-field action. Luckily, that isn't the case for the Cincinnati Bengals, though. In fact, Cincinnati's injury report for their Week 8 matchup with the Philadelphia Eagles is a major reason for optimism.

Cincinnati has a very light injury report heading into Week 8

The Bengals listed just five players on their injury report this week -- Joe Burrow, Orlando Brown, Geno Stone, Kris Jenkins Jr. and Trey Hendrickson -- and by Thursday all five had participated in practice in some capacity. Stone and Brown were limited participants, while the other three were all full participants.

The fact that Stone and Brown were both able to practice is great news for the Bengals, as both were injured in Week 7 against Cleveland. With Stone specifically, it looked like his injury could have been much worse than it ended up being.

The Bengals dealt with a plethora of injury issues earlier in the season. Dax Hill, Trent Brown and Jaxson Kirkland have all been lost for the year with season-ending injuries, and they also had a bunch of other absences. Now though, it seems like the waters have calmed a bit.

Meanwhile, Philadelphia's injury report for Week 8 is pretty extensive and features 11 players, including star running back Saquon Barkley, who was in attendance for the 76ers home opener against the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday night, and tight end Dallas Goedert.

Obviously not all 11 players listed on Philadelphia's injury report will miss the game. In fact, most will likely end up playing, including Barkley, who is coming off of a 176-yard performance against his former franchise. But, the Eagles certainly appear to be a bit more banged up than the Bengals heading into the contest, at least in terms of active players.

If the Bengals are able to take advantage of their relatively healthy status for the game in Cleveland, they just might be able to walk away with their third straight win.