With safety Bryan Cook (ankle) inactive for Sunday's game at Paycor Stadium against the Jaguars, the Bengals are turning to special teams ace P.J. Jules and practice squadder Russ Yeast.

Also out is backup safety Kyle Dugger (quad).

Yeast hasn't played a game since he played four games for three teams in 2024. But he's been in big games. He took 36 snaps in the Rams' 2023 playoff  loss to the Lions and had five tackles, four of them solos in an outing during his 33-game career in Los Angeles.

He also walked out of Pacyor with the ball he intercepted in a preseason win back in August. His dad Craig, the head coach at Mercer County Senior High School in Harrodsburg, Ky., has some history here, too. He returned a punt for a touchdown to help the Bengals close Riverfront Stadium with a 1999 win over Cleveland.

Trevor Again

Let's not forget in the 2019 national title game that the LSU/Bengals' Joe Burrow beat the Clemson/Jags' Trevor Lawrence, Burrow threw two of his six touchdowns and 221 of his 463 yards to Bengals wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase.

And the other Bengals wide receiver, Tee Higgins, caught three touchdowns and 182 yards from Lawrence a few weeks before as the MVP of the ACC title game win against Virginia, and Higgins still remembers one catch in that 62-17 win.

"When I made that sideline catch," said Higgins last week when asked to recall the one throw he remembers from Lawrence. "He was scrambling rolling to the right."

What Higgins failed to mention was that his catch was near-miraculous. In the days he needed just one foot in, Higgins somehow was able to swipe his left foot as he made a diving catch falling out of bounds.

Expect those Big Four from that national title game to make some plays Sunday.

"That's my guy," Higgins said. "I hope he does well and we do even better.  I'll definitely chop it up after the game with him. He'll stand and deliver the ball when he knows he's about to get hit. I know he's a leader for that offense and will stand up and tell guys where (they) need to be."

Bengals defensive tackle and proud Clemson alum Dexter Lawrence played with Trevor and calls him his "long lost brother." What's not lost on Dexter is what he'll see Sunday.

"He does a good job getting them into the proper calls against the proper looks," Dexter said. "He's accurate and can run the ball."

Slants and Screens

Right guard Dalton Risner (knee), hurt on the last play last week, is active …

Chase needs 80 yards to pass Bengals Ring of Honor member Isaac Curtis into third on the Bengals all-time list behind Chad Johnson and A.J. Green …

Chase is three touchdowns from becoming the seventh player in NFL history to have 60 touchdowns  in his first six career seasons …

That also makes Chase the fourth player in NFL history with 7,000 yards and 60 touchdowns in the first six seasons. That would seem to be a Gold Jacket qualifier because the other three are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Jerry Rice, Randy Moss, Marvin Harrison Sr. ...