The Cincinnati Bengals are already experiencing injuries and we're only one game into the regular season. The team lost Lucas Patrick to a calf injury in the season opener against the Browns and it was announced on Tuesday that Patrick will land on IR.
Losing Patrick isn't necessarily the end of the world considering how well the recently-signed Dalton Risner played in his absence but it's definitely worth noting that Cincinnati's o-line depth now isn't great. They chose to promote a defensive line from the practice squad instead, bringing up Mike Pennel to bolster the d-line depth.
Bengals place Lucas Patrick on IR, promote Mike Pennel from practice squad
With Patrick out, the starting o-line for the Bengals will consist of Orlando Brown Jr. at left tackle, Dylan Fairchild at left guard, Ted Karras at center, Risner at right guard, and Amarius Mims at right tackle. Cody Ford, Matt Lee, and Jalen Rivers are the backup offensive linemen as of this writing.
As for the defensive line, Pennel provides some intriguing depth there. He's spent the past two seasons with the Chiefs, tallying three sacks last year and was a pretty surprising cut for Kansas City. Pennel was scooped up by the Bengals, played in their opener last week, but then was kicked back down to the practice squad. Now he's back on the active roster, likely for a longer stint this time.
Also in this wave of roster moves, the Bengals signed two players to their practice squad. These two players are Myles Cole and Isaiah Foskey, who was a former second-round pick by the Saints just two years ago. The hope is that first-year defensive coordinator Al Golden can get something out of Foskey that the Saints could not.
To circle back, injuries are unfortunate but Risner will be a solid replacement for Patrick. If injuries continue on the o-line, that will obviously be a bigger issue and one that we hopefully don't have to think about. The d-line, however, should hopefully get some help from Pennel and it'd be great if he could make the Chiefs look foolish for not keeping him on their roster.