PLAYER OF THE DAY

RB Chase Brown

Head coach Zac Taylor had originally scheduled two hours for Wednesday afternoon's practice, complete with live team drills. But with the Bengals less than 48 hours out from Monday night's road win that basically eliminated Tuesday's off day, Taylor cut out 45 minutes and the live stuff.

Yet that left enough seven-on-seven to see how much Brown has elevated his all-around game. Here's a guy coming off a 1,300-yard touch season becoming more and more of a factor in the pass game in his third preseason.

"He's throwing it more to him this camp than in years past," said linebacker Logan Wilson after practice of quarterback Joe Burrow’s connection with Brown. "I think that's a credit to how he's worked on the receiving aspect of his game. He's a receiving threat everywhere on the field."

This is how Brown has improved his game:

After practice, he wasn't chortling about a great deep ball he caught despite Wilson's textbook coverage. Instead, he was thinking back to a play from Monday night's first drive in Landover, Md. As Burrow got rid of a go route to All-Pro wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase on a play that would end with Chase drawing a 25-yard pass interference penalty, Brown refused to back into Burrow on linebacker Frankie Luvu's blitz.

"Which could have been a lot better," Brown said. "You learn from it. That's what I was telling my coach today. That's why I love playing this much in preseason. You get to clean up stuff for the next couple of games. I thought I closed space really well. I let him get into my chest. Could have been better there."

The self-scouting and introspection have paid off. Remember how Brown last year would spend extra time on Wednesdays during the season in running backs coach Justin Hill’s office simply going over pass protection?

"I'd say absolutely improved as a pass protector. The nuances of it, the technique of it," Taylor said before practice. "The eye progression of it has improved over the early part of last season, all the way through last season, and you feel outstanding about it. He's always been a really good runner for us. It's hard to say how much improvement has there been there because he's always been really good."

PLAY OF THE DAY

RB Chase Brown

Here's that play from seven-on-seven:

Burrow splitting out Brown wide to the left. Matched up on a linebacker, Brown lives for those. But Wilson is one of the best to do it. No linebacker has more interceptions in the 2020s than Wilson with 11.

Brown races down the left sideline on a go route. Wilson, the all-Wyoming wide receiver-safety-punter-kicker, is right with him. Brown barely gets behind him and has to rip the ball down through Wilson's pesky hands that are all over him for the catch.

Linebackers coach Mike Hodges greets Wilson with admiration despite the catch, and as Brown walks back to the huddle, Hodges shakes his head and sticks out his hand.

"Listen, if you're in good coverage, that dude is still going to put it where only his guy can get it," Wilson said. "I wasn't going to bring him to the ground. They make good plays and that's part of it."

A play like that is what Taylor is talking about when asked about Brown's rise as an all-around player.

"When I say route runner, I'm not talking about coming out of the backfield on choice routes and all that stuff," Taylor said. "Splitting out as a receiver and having a real understanding of what our receivers go through and what Joe is going to see.

"He's become really valuable in that way. Samaje (Perine) has been that for us. Not so much getting him out in space, but as a checkdown."

Wilson deals with threats like this every Sunday, and from what he has seen this camp, there's a sigh of relief this is one of the last days he has to deal with Brown.

"Anybody who is a threat like he is coming outside of the backfield as much as he is inside is a problem," Wilson said. "He's looking to separate himself as a receiver … He's done a lot of good work this offseason to get better in route running."

QUOTE OF THE DAY

LB Logan Wilson on RB Chase Brown's impact on the defense:

"Just adding one more monster to the fire they have on offense. He's going to be a problem. I'm looking forward to him not going against us and against Cleveland in week one."

SLANTS AND SCREENS

When Taylor wiped out Tuesday's live action, it delayed the return of defensive tackle and team leader B.J. Hill, managing a foot injury this spring and summer so he could get to this point. Since the starters aren't playing in Saturday's preseason finale (1 p.m.-Cincinnati’s FOX 19) at Paycor Stadium against the Colts, Hill can get his live debut in Thursday.

"Shout out to the trainers for getting me ready," Hill said. "I'm in good conditioning. I've stayed in shape. Now it's just a matter of getting into football shape and that's no problem. I've got two weeks of great practice." …

Hill watched the first defense on Monday night struggle with run fits, allowing 106 yards on six carries in their seven-play set, and says it can get fixed.

"Everything's fixable. It's not week one yet," Hill said. "As the game went on, we did get it fixed. No matter if it's vanilla or not, those runs never should have got out. Easy fixes." …

Wilson was in the middle of it, and he believes the competitive practices against one of the best offenses in the league are more indicative of his defense. He also says new defensive coordinator Al Golden’s scheme is going to look a lot different once there is a game plan in place.

"It's not what you want to see, but at the end of the day, we're not really running anything we're going to run," Wilson said. "They had some schemed plays that were not good for what we were in … I'm not making any excuses. We can always play better, but it's not necessarily something I'm really worried about."

Golden has made sure the flavor of August has been vanilla and Wilson thinks once the toppings are on, it's a new game.

"We're limited in what we're trying to do. There's a lot of stagnancy to it," Wilson said. "So in terms of the offensive line and who you're targeting pre-snap, post-snap, it's easier for them to know who to block. Things like that. When you get into a real game plan, they get a lot more complex." …

Taylor had relatively good news on the injury front Wednesday. Except on backup left tackle Cordell Volson. Taylor said he's out for the year with an injured shoulder, that requires surgery, a tough injury for a tough man. Until he was benched late in his third season last year, he had yet to miss an NFL snap…

But from the current injured list, Volson appears to be the only one out for the Sept. 7 opener in Cleveland.

Taylor said the injury to starting right guard Lucas Patrick Monday night isn't as bad as first feared. He basically put him in a day-to-day category of guys who could play if the games were real. Also on that list are edge rusher Myles Murphy, wide receiver Jermaine Burton, tight ends Mike Gesicki and Drew Sample and cornerback DJ Turner II …

Backup center Matt Lee, who has yet to play in the preseason games, worked Wednesday …