Bengals get bad news about Browns defender ahead of Week 1 match-up

The Cincinnati Bengals hope to not start slow this year but they'll have to get past the Cleveland Browns first. The Browns have notoriously had Cincinnati's number and while the Bengals finally got past them in the second meeting last year, this is still a team that makes Bengals fans nervous.

Something that could help the Bengals is if the Browns didn't have Denzel Ward, one of their best players on defense. Ward has been dealing with a concussion but returned to practice on Wednesday. This puts him on track to potentially play on Sunday when the two Ohio squads meet in Cleveland.

Bengals might have to face Denzel Ward after all

Ward is no stranger to having big games against the Bengals. In the first meeting between the two teams in the 2021 season, Ward picked off a Joe Burrow pass in the end zone and took it all the way down the field for a pick-six.

Ward is a game-changer and he's proven that in his match-ups against the Bengals. Burrow hasn't played at all this summer and if he starts off rusty as he did last year, Ward could make it a long day for the Bengals quarterback.

Hopefully, Ward doesn't make any kind of impact in this game and the Cincinnati Bengals can start the year 1-0 and get the monkey that is the Cleveland Browns off their back.