Bengals Practice Squad: Bengals add Trey Hopkins to practice squad; release Tony McRae

After waiving offensive lineman Trey Hopkins yesterday to make room to add rookie cornerback KeiVarae Russell to the roster, the Bengals have signed Hopkins to the practice squad.

To make room for Hopkins on the practice squad, the team released rookie cornerback Tony McRae. The Bengals still have cornerback Darius Hillary on the practice squad and have seven cornerbacks on the 53-man roster.

Hopkins, a second-year player out of University of Texas, joined the Bengals as an undrafted free agent following the 2014 NFL Draft. Hopkins played four seasons at Texas, starting at right tackle as a sophomore, before moving to left guard as a junior and senior. As we know, the Bengals covet offensive lineman with the ability to play multiple positions and that was a big reason why Hopkins was on the Week 1 roster. With Jake Fisher and Cedric Ogbuehi both returning in Week 1 from preseason injuries, it seems Hopkins was the Bengals’ insurance policy for the first week of the season.

Hopkins was injured during his rookie preseason and ended up spending the year on Injured Reserve. In 2015, he was a member of the team’s practice squad. The Bengals clearly like his potential and diversity to play across the line, but it wasn’t necessary to have 10 offensive lineman on the roster. Now, the Bengals have nine offensive lineman on the roster and two on the practice squad. Rookie guard Alex Redmond is also on the team’s practice squad.

As for McRae, who the team released today, the former North Carolina A&T cornerback joined the Bengals in August, about 10 days into training camp. He played well in the preseason, recording 10 tackles, but didn’t do enough to edge out Chykie Brown, who grabbed the last cornerback spot on the team’s roster. With yesterday’s addition of Russell, it makes sense that the team would waive a cornerback from the practice squad to make room for Hopkins.

Here is the Bengals' updated practice squad: