Adam Jones, Clint Boling miss Bengals’ Thursday practice

Adam Jones is now in real danger of missing the Cincinnati Bengals’ Week 7 clash with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

After being a limited participant in Wednesday’s practice, Jones was unable to go on Thursday.

It appears that Jones did a limited session on Wednesday to test his body and see if he could work through the injuries he’s dealing with, which include back spasms. Seeing Jones not practice Thursday suggests the results weren’t good, so perhaps he’ll be held out this week.

It’s also possible the Bengals decided to give Jones more rest in hopes he’ll progress enough to play on Sunday, but even if he’s active, we probably shouldn’t expect to see him get a full workload.

That’s why, as Geoff Hobson put it, William Jackson III has to step up and play well in what’s shaping up to be a big workload for him in Pittsburgh. Jackson has had his highs and lows in his first year getting NFL action after missing his rookie year due to a torn pectoral muscle.

Even with Jackson’s struggles, he’s still ranked just three spots behind Jones in Pro Football Focus’ rankings of the top cornerbacks (Jones is 65th; Jackson is 68th). It will be interesting to see how well Jackson plays against Antonio Brown, Martavis Bryant and JuJu Smith-Schuster, all of whom have proven to be dangerous.

Dre Kirkpatrick will likely be the guy on Brown most of the day, but Bryant and JuJu have shown they can break a game open as well.

Elsewhere, starting left guard Clint Boling was absent due to personal reasons. Those reasons happen to be him and his wife expecting a baby today! Clint’s wife, Kelly, has documented her pregnancy on social media and has shared in a number of posts that baby Boling was expected on Thursday. Boling should be on-the-field on Sunday for the Steelers game and will have a baby at home to add some inspiration to his play.