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Cincinnati Bengals (6-0) at Pittsburgh Steelers (4-3)
When: 1 p.m. Sunday
Where: Heinz Field
TV: Ch. 7, 12
Radio: 700-AM, 102.7-FM, 104.7-FM
The Cincinnati Bengals returned to the practice field Monday following their bye week, but injured linebacker Vontaze Burfict was not among those participating.
Burfict has been eligible to come off the Physically Unable to Perform list since Oct. 19, but instead of a jersey and helmet, he wore a T-shirt and shorts as he hopped on a golf cart and took a ride to practice, where he only did rehab work on a side field.
Bengals coach Marvin Lewis sounded as though Burfict won’t be cleared to practice any time soon.
“We won’t gauge him until we put him back to practice,” Lewis said. “He’s done a good job in the rehab and he continues to be in the rehab until he’s not. That’s just where we are.
“There’s not a big thing,” Lewis added. “You guys make more of it than there really is. When he’s ready, he’ll be ready. And that’s when he’ll come back to practice, and then we’ll go from there. Other than that, we’re wasting time talking about somebody that’s not on the team.”
The last time Lewis talked about Burfict’s situation was on cutdown day Sept. 5, when he sounded as though he expected the Pro Bowl linebacker to be ready to practice at this point. Lewis said the team debated whether to even place Burfict, who had microfracture surgery on his left knee in January, on the PUP list or put him on the active roster, hoping he would be ready sooner than the six-week period mandated by the PUP designation.
“It was a really difficult decision and one, frankly, that could have broke either way,” Lewis said at the time. “I think really what came down in the end is the best thing for Vontaze’s future is for us to make sure we give him enough time and not rush him back on the field.”
Burfict spent the majority of the practice period open to the media going through rehab drills with linebacker Sean Porter and rookie tackle Cedric Ogbuehi. After about 30 minutes, he had a brief discussion with Lewis and then ran toward where the other linebackers were going through an agility drill. Burfict leapt over a tackling dummy and hopped into the middle of the drill, high stepping laterally over a series of pads spaced a few feet apart on the ground.
Defensive coordinator Paul Guenther said if/when Burfict is cleared to practice, it won’t take him long to get up to speed mentally.
“From an Xs and Os standpoint, I think he can pick it up in a day,” Guenther said. “I mean he’s that smart. He knows our system inside and out.”
The unknown is how quickly Burfict can get into game shape.
“It’s like coming into training camp,” Guenther said. “You’re not going to be in football shape right away, so you can’t play a whole bunch of snaps right away. We’ll have to ease him into it when he gets back. Once he gets out there, whenever he does, and he gets going, it’s all going to be feel at that point.”
Per PUP rules, once Burfict returns to practice the team will have three weeks to activate him to the 53-man roster or end his season. If Burfict doesn’t begin practicing by Week 12, he will be moved to season-ending Injured Reserve.
Porter also is on the PUP list, while Obguehi, the team’s first-round pick this year, is on the Non-Football Injury list. The NFI rules are identical to PUP.
The good news on the practice front was that defensive end Michael Johnson and linebacker Vinny Rey were working. Both left the Oct. 18 win in Buffalo with injuries in the second half.
Cornerback Leon Hall, who was inactive for the Buffalo game with a back injury, also practiced Monday.
The only player on the active 53-man roster who did not practice was defensive end Wallace Gilberry, who has been battling a calf injury but has yet to miss a game.
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