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The most important thing an NFL team can do during a preseason game is to make it out without any major injuries.
These are exhibition games that are just used as tune-ups for the regular season as well as evaluating the roster. The worst thing that could happen is losing a major contributor for an extended period of time during the regular season during one of these games.
Cincinnati seems to really understand that last part as caution has been the name of the game during training camp and now into Week 1 of the preseason.
They weren't able to make it out completely unscathed, but it is still football after all.
Here are the injuries from the Bengals preseason matchup against the Chiefs:
Trayveon Williams: Bruised ribs
Williams was going to see a prominent role during the Bengals first game. The team held out Joe Mixon, Giovani Bernard, and recently activated Rodney Anderson from action.
He did a pretty good job illustrating why he had been receiving so much hype during training camp, but unfortunately, he couldn't escape the game with a good bill of health.
He appeared to suffer the rib injury making a tackle right before halftime as the defense was returning an intercepted hail mary attempt.
We will have to see if Williams misses any action because of the injury, but we will probably see plenty of Quinton Flowers and Jordan Ellis for the rest of the preseason.
Clayton Fejedelem: Ankle injury
The severity of Fejedelem's injury has yet to surface, but if he misses a ton of time, it could spell danger for the Bengals special teams.
Fejedelem has also been a valuable backup safety as well as seeing some playing time in three safety sets. He was originally carted off the field, and he was announced to be out the rest of the game.
During a regular-season game, that would probably mean it was serious, but given teams are more cautious during the preseason we can still hold out hope that the injury isn't something that will have Fejedelem miss any serious amount of time.
His injury opens up plenty of snaps for guys like Brandon Wilson, Trayvon Henderson and Demetrious Cox.
Christian Ringo: Thumb injury
The Bengals’ defensive line depth took a hit when Christina Ringo was knocked out of the game with a right thumb injury. His injury actually led to Andrew Brown moving inside to defensive tackle after playing on the edge for much of the game.
Ringo showed some flashes of being a serviceable lineman in five games with the Bengals last season, but it wasn’t enough to secure his roster spot this year, especially with how crowded the defensive line is.
Depending on how bad this injury is, it could kill Ringo’s hopes of making the 53-man roster.
Cethan Carter: Neck strain
Cethan Carter made the Bengals’ roster as an undrafted free agent in 2017. He’s been a solid h-back, but a torn labrum cost him all of 2018.
Carter has a good chance to make the roster this year if he can stay healthy, but if this injury sidelines him for an extended amount of time, it could allow someone like Mason Schreck to steal his spot on the Week 1 roster.
William Jackson sits out with a ‘tweak’
This is slightly concerning given the teams history this offseason of thinking injuries aren't as serious as they are with Jonah Williams missing most (if not all) the regular season, and A.J. Green expected to miss a game(s). Both of which were downplayed.
This could just be more of an example of the Cincinnati keeping their important players safe for the regular season. It would certainly make sense given the names of players held out of action.
The following #Bengals are not expected to play tonight vs Kansas City:
— Marisa Contipelli (@BengalsMarisa) August 10, 2019
WR John Ross
WR A.J. Green
CB Darqueze Dennard
CB William Jackson
HB Giovani Bernard
HB Joe Mixon
HB Rodney Anderson
DE Carl Lawson
OL Alex Redmond
OL Jonah Williams
TE Tyler Eifert
DT Geno Atkins
Darqueze Dennard is still on the PUP list, so B.W. Webb started in his place. Darius Phillips and Tony McRae also saw extensive snaps.