Cornerback Leon Hall won't be available when the Cincinnati Bengals begin their OTA work with their first practice on Tuesday. And in fact he may miss several offseason practices, which concludes on June 13 with the completion of the team's three-day mandatory minicamp. Hall suffered a "torn thumb ligament" earlier this month while lifting, but he's expected to return before the completion of this year's OTA practices.
The Bengals are already down at cornerback with Dre Kirkpatrick, recovering from a knee procedure earlier during the offseason, being unavailable during offseason practices. Kirkpatrick is expected to be ready for training camp in late July.
Ideally this gives defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer and defensive backs coach Mark Carrier added opportunities to check out younger players, like Brandon Ghee and Shaun Prater, both of whom appeared promising during camp last year only to have their respective season's cut short with injuries. There are eight cornerbacks that are expected to practice on Tuesday: Terence Newman, Adam Jones, Prater, Ghee, Onterio McCalebb, Chris Lewis-Harris, Troy Stoudermire, and Terrence Brown.