Bengals training camp: One surprise star on offense; Shemar Stewart grades his first padded practice

CINCINNATI — The Cincinnati Bengals held their fifth practice of training camp on Monday and it was a big one with the team donning full pads for the first time. 

The weather was hot and sticky (82% humidity), but the Bengals actually caught a break about 45 minutes into the session when a thunderstorm moved into downtown Cincinnati. Once the severe weather hit, coach Zac Taylor made the call to move practice into the team’s air-conditioned indoor facility, and as we all know, air-conditioned is always better than hot and sticky. 

The Bengals offense wasn’t at the top of its game once practice moved indoors, but Chase Brown did show why the team has such high expectations for him this year and that’s where we’re going to start our takeaways. 

Chase Brown might soon be a household name

Bengals offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher might as well be Brown’s personal PR guy, because Pitcher has been the leader of the Brown hype train since the start of camp. Last week, Pitcher said that Brown would be a “Focal” point in the team’s offense this year. Also, in a recent interview with Yahoo Sports, Pitcher compared Brown to Austin Ekeler and said that the running back would be a “household name” by the end of the year. 

So why were the Bengals so confident in him? It’s because he can do things like this. During an 11-on-11 period, Brown had the most electrifying run of the day when he used his shiftiness to go 10 yards for a touchdown. In the video below, you can hear just how excited his teammates were after he scored. 

Brown has been with the team since his rookie year in 2023, but he didn’t see much action that first season, because he was behind Joe Mixon on the depth chart. After the Bengals traded Mixon away in March 2024, Brown became the top running back in Cincinnati and the team’s confidence in him paid off: In 2024, Brown totaled 1,350 yards (990 rushing, 360 receiving) and 11 total touchdowns. 

For the 2025 season, the Bengals have even higher expectations, especially when it comes to Brown’s ability to catch the ball out of the backfield. 

“He’s put a lot of time and attention into his pass game value and just being able to be a weapon out there,” Taylor said before practice on Monday. “He’s always looking to improve as a protector and a runner. We’re still early in camp, but I’ve been pleased by everything I’ve seen from Chase.”

Brown isn’t trying to become a household name, but he’s well aware that might happen since he’s playing in a prolific Bengals’ offense. 

“Just making the plays that come my way, whether they hand me the ball or throw me the ball or when I’m in protection, just being dominant in every area of my game,” Brown said Monday. “That household name will take care of itself.”

If the Bengals are planning on turning Brown into Cincinnati’s version of Ekeler, that definitely means he’ll be seeing more action in the passing game. Ekeler finished with more than 70 receptions three times in his career and Brown could be targeting that number. The 25-year-old caught 54 passes last season after catching just 14 passes in 2023. 

Shemar Stewart gives himself a grade for his first padded practice

When it comes to the Bengals defense, all eyes were on Shemar Stewart Monday. The first-round pick didn’t report to the start of training camp due to a contract stalemate, but that ended Saturday when he finally agreed to terms on his rookie deal. At his first practice with the team, which came on Sunday, Stewart didn’t really have any highlights. As a matter of fact, the most notable thing about his practice might have been the fact that he accidentally threw Gatorade on his face to cool off instead of water. Total rookie move. 

For his second practice Monday, Stewart was ready to roll. The pass-rusher was taking second-team reps and during his time on the field, he came up with two big pass break-ups, including the one below, where Jake Browning never had a chance. 

“I got off the block and I came in free,” Stewart said of the play. 

Stewart was asked to grade his first practice in full pads and he said he’d give himself a C+. 

“I feel like it was a way better day than [Sunday],” Stewart said. “I would say I’d give me a C+. I did mess up on some things. There were some plays I left on the table for sure.”

One of the mistakes Stewart made came when Joe Burrow got him to jump with a hard count. 

“Rookie mistake,” Stewart said. “The coaches were on me about that. I’m going to make it up to him, though.”

One other reason practice went smoother for Stewart on Monday is because he actually got a chance to rest. The rookie said he was in the team’s facility before 6 a.m. ET on Sunday and that made for a long day. 

“I came in at 5:30 in the morning trying to learn the playbook,” Stewart said of his Sunday practice. “Just a little nervous, got on the field, had a little bit of jitters.”

The fact that Stewart is already making plays is huge news for the Bengals, because this team is going to need him to contribute in 2025. Trey Hendrickson, who’s currently in a contract squabble with the team, will likely show up at some point, but even when that happens, the Bengals still need a pass-rusher to compliment him and that’s where Stewart, the 17th overall pick this year, will be expected to come in. 

Evan McPherson’s impressive training camp continues

The Bengals kicker is coming off the worst season of his career. After hitting just 72.4% of his field goal attempts last season, McPherson decided to go back to the future with his technique. During his rookie year, McPherson went 19 of 19 in the postseason, which was arguably the greatest playoff performance by a rookie kicker in NFL history. 

Despite his impressive numbers in 2021, McPherson decided to tweak his technique heading into the 2022 season. He didn’t love the fact that his ball kept drawing to the left on his kicks, so he focused more on hitting the ball straight. His used his new technique for two seasons (2022, 2023), but it caused him to lose some power, so now, he’s reverting back to his original kicking technique. 

“I feel like it hit me this offseason,” McPherson said of when he decided to make the change. “I just wasn’t feeling like I was striking the ball that well. I just remembered back to pre-draft, I felt like I was hitting the ball the best I ever had and I was just thinking, ‘How could I get back to that spot?'” 

McPherson decided to watch some film of himself from four years ago and his film work has paid off because he’s now on a roll in training camp. The 26-year-old has unofficially drilled 23 of 24 kicks in camp. His only miss during a team period came on Monday, when he sent a 40-yarder sailing wide right. 

After the miss, McPherson came back and hit four straight kicks to close the day, including a 54-yard field goal that he smashed through the uprights. 

When you’re a kicker in the NFL, you’re going to miss at some point, so part of the job is being able to mentally bounce back from a bad kick. Last year, that wasn’t so easy. In 2024, McPherson admitted there were times where he started to “second-guess” himself after a miss. 

The Bengals kicker added that he can sometimes be too negative on himself, so he decided to reach out to the team’s psychologist, Dr. Peter Ganshirt. 

“We’ve got a great team psychologist in Dr. Ganshirt and I’ve talked to him every now and then in the past,” McPherson said. “In OTAs … we had more in-depth conversations on the field, things I can work on, on the field. I’d say I’m a pretty negative self-talker, give myself a hard time and we talk about it and he’s like, ‘That’s where you’re screwing up, you need to tell yourself you got it. You’re here for a reason. You’re the best and there’s no reason why you should miss this.'”

From a mental standpoint, McPherson said he’s now in a much better spot. 

“It’s flipping the mindset,” the kicker said. “Instead of ‘Oh, I really hope I’m going to make this,’ you switch it to ‘I’m going to make this.’ And that’s kind of been the big change for me is more positive self-talk, thoughts and stuff like that.”

Switching back to his old technique — a technique he knows well — should also help him from a mental standpoint, because he won’t be worrying about his swing when he’s out on the field trying to hit a clutch kick. 

“If I’m a little nervous, I can focus on my breathing, my heart rate rather than having to focus on ‘Are my steps right? Am I lined up [right],” McPherson said. “All I want to focus is on is the moment and what I have to do to hit the ball through.”

Although McPherson has been nearly perfect in training camp, he’s already counting down the days until the Bengals’ first preseason game, which will be coming on Aug. 7 in Philadelphia. 

“Doing it in practice is one thing, but I’m really excited to get to Philly and put it in a game-setting,” McPherson said. “Even if I mis-hit one and still have it go through, I feel like that’s what I’m aiming to do to. I know I’m not going to be perfect, so I just want those mis-hits not to waver to far off line.”

Seven of the Bengals’ eight losses last season were decided by one score and it won’t be surprising if they continue to play close games in 2025. If that’s the case, McPherson’s right leg could be the deciding factor in whether the Bengals have a successful season or not and he seems ready for that challenge.