Early camp report: Hart at RT, Hopkins at RG on depth chart

Bengals Training Camp presented by Kettering Health kicks off on Wednesday, July 26. The two-time defending AFC North Division Champions are scheduled to hold 10 open practices. Four additional practices will be open exclusively to Season Ticket Members and Waitlist Members.

Even as the Bengals and Rams left the field after their chaotic and abrupt end to their joint practices Thursday, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow never left where the ball was spotted for the last time and stayed on the field to get his work in.

There seems to be a hold on the Bengals punting competition between franchise all-timer Kevin Huber and first-year challenger Drue Chrisman. But not really.

The old preseason dress rehearsal used to be the third preseason game. But since there are only three of them now and the last one is Saturday (6 p.m.-Cincinnati's Local 12) at Paycor Stadium, then this week's two practices against the Rams are when Bengals head coach Zac Taylor is rolling out his first teams.

The Bengals and Rams, the kissing cousins of the NFL, got together Wednesday for the first of two joint practices and the crispness and no-frills punctuality of the camp on the sweltering Kettering Health Practice Fields in downtown Cincinnati showed why these teams ran so well last season and played each other in the Super Bowl. The coaches should have been dressed business casual because Zac Taylor and Sean McVay ran it like a conference.

It's not exactly a rematch of Super Bowl LVI, but when the Bengals scrimmage the Rams Wednesday on the Kettering Health Practice Fields it's not your typical joint session between NFL teams, either.

Free safety Jessie Bates III returned with his bountiful bag of postseason heroics to Paycor Stadium and on Wednesday met the press a few hours before the Bengals hosted a joint practice against the defending NFL champion Rams, the team he intercepted in the end zone during Super Bowl LVI.

On Saturday (6 p.m.-Cincinnati's Local 12) at Paycor Stadium, the Bengals play the preseason finale against the Rams in what is truly a Super Bowl for the guys on the back of the roster. At the moment, the Bengals probably have about 57-59 names on their big board as they look to make the cut to 53.

What to make of it all Sunday night at Met Life Stadium? The Bengals, who sat all their starters but long snapper Clark Harris, lost in the last 35 seconds to a Giants team that went with their starting quarterback Daniel Jones for three series and hung with many other starters on each side of the ball for much of the first half.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. _ Bengals running back Chris Evans didn't rest on the laurels of his 41-yard kick return in the preseason opener and with the soundtrack of special teams coordinator Darrin Simmons burning his ears he went even longer with a 73-yarder Sunday night against the Giants in a 25-22 preseason loss at MetLife Stadium.

A few vignettes along the Bengals offensive line heading into Sunday's preseason game (7 p.m.-Cincinnati's Local 12) against the Giants in New York. They all revolve around rookie left guard Cordell Volson, the small-town kid getting his first NFL start in the city that never sleeps.

Last year in the playoffs, Bengals linebacker Clay Johnston took down a king. Now this year in the preseason he's simply trying to get back over the moat into the kingdom.