Dre Kirkpatrick and Carlos Dunlap not present for Week 2 of Bengals OTAs

The Bengals’ defense has some big names sitting out for the second week of OTAs taking place this week in Cincinnati.

While most of the roster was present, the Bengals were without defensive end Carlos Dunlap and cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick.

UPDATE (4:30 p.m.): Kirkpatrick was excused from OTAs on Tuesday due to a death in his family. He attended the funeral in Alabama on Tuesday and will be back with the team on Wednesday in Cincinnati. Our thoughts are with Kirkpatrick at this time.

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Dunlap was expected to be out this week after skipping all prior voluntary OTA sessions this offseason. He’s entering a contract year and probably doesn’t want to risk an injury that could nuke his chances of a big payday. He also may be holding out waiting for a new contract.

Just last week, we saw Chargers tight end Hunter Henry and Eagles linebacker Paul Worrilow suffer torn ACLs that will almost certainly cost them all of the 2018 season. That’s a fate Dunlap will not allow to happen in a voluntary OTA session.

It will be interesting to see what approach Dunlap takes for the mandatory minicamp in June. He obviously doesn’t want to risk injury, so perhaps the Bengals will allow him to attend but stay on the sideline and avoid injury risks.

The last thing the Bengals need is a key defender like Dunlap to be injured in an offseason workout, and the last thing Dunlap needs is such an injury in a contract year.

We’ll keep you posted as more Bengals OTA news develops.