Vontaze Burfict returns to practice for Bengals

The Cincinnati Bengals may finally get Vontaze Burfict back in Week 16.

After missing practice on Wednesday, Burfict returned to the field for Thursday’s session, as the team prepares to host the Detroit Lions on Sunday.

Burfict has missed the last two games while recovering from a concussion. It happened late in the Bengals’ Week 13 loss to the Steelers, where Burfict was laid out with a monster hit by Juju Smith-Schuster. It came on a checkdown pass to Le’Veon Bell, in which Burfict was coming up from the middle of the field to tackle Bell, but then came a massive blindside hit to the helmet by Smith-Schuster.

Burfict went to the ground immediately and was clearly shaken up before being loaded onto a stretcher. Burfict was then taken from the game, and he went on to miss the next two games, as well as every practice since then until Thursday.

The Bengals badly need Burfict back this week just to field a defense. Vincent Rey (mouth), Nick Vigil (ankle) and Jordan Evans (forearm) are all banged up, not to mention Kevin Minter is now on injured reserve.

Be sure to check back later for the full injury report to see how much work Burfict got in.