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Courtney Cronin
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Courtney Cronin
ESPN Staff Writer
- Courtney Cronin joined ESPN in 2017, originally covering the Minnesota Vikings before switching to the Chicago Bears in 2022. Courtney is a frequent panelist on Around the Horn and host of Best Week Ever on ESPN Radio. She also co-hosts The Chicago Bears Podcast on ESPN 1000. She previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News as a multimedia sports journalist.
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Ben Baby
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Ben Baby
ESPN Staff Writer
- Ben Baby covers the Cincinnati Bengals for ESPN. He joined the company in July 2019. Prior to ESPN, he worked for various newspapers in Texas, most recently at The Dallas Morning News where he covered college sports.
He provides daily coverage of the Bengals for ESPN.com, while making appearances on SportsCenter, ESPN’s NFL shows and ESPN Radio programs.
A native of Grapevine, Texas, he graduated from the University of North Texas with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. He is an adjunct journalism professor at Southern Methodist University and a member of the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA).
LAKE FOREST, Ill. — Two Cincinnati Bengals players exited a joint practice with the Chicago Bears on Thursday at Halas Hall because of injuries.
Reserve running back Chris Evans was injured while covering a kickoff nearing the end of the two-hour period. Trainers immobilized Evans’ right leg with an air cast and carted him off the practice field.
Evans torn a patella tendon and is out for the season, a source told ESPN.
About 10 minutes after Evans was injured, reserve offensive tackle D’Ante Smith went down with an injury to his left leg that also required his leg to be immobilized with an air cast. Smith screamed in pain while down on the field before he was helped to a cart by trainers and taken off the field.
Bengals coach Zac Taylor said he did not see either injury when they occurred.
“Certainly, feel for them and we’ll be there for them,” Taylor said after practice. “I don’t know what the outcome is yet but it certainly was tough to watch.”
Thursday’s practice took place outside during a steady downpour throughout much of the session, and players were seen slipping during individual and team drills. Taylor disagreed with the notion that the injuries were field-related.
Bears coach Matt Eberflus said there was no thought given to ending the practice prematurely amid the back-to-back injuries.
“It’s very unfortunate and you feel bad for those particular players that had those injuries,” Eberflus said. “We had a plan in place for the rain if we had the lightning. If we have an extended thing for injury, we could always combine the fields and make them one, as we would’ve done with the [Walter Payton Center] if we had to take it inside. That’s where we are.”
Even before Smith went down, the Bengals’ depth along the offensive line had taken a hit in the last week.
Rookie Amarius Mims, who was taking all of the first-team reps at right tackle, will miss several weeks with a strained pectoral muscle. His status for Week 1 remains undisclosed. Veteran Trent Brown, who took over for Mims, was replaced by Cody Ford during Thursday’s joint practice because of back tightness, according to Taylor.
Cincinnati will evaluate its depth at offensive tackle following Thursday’s injuries.
“We’ll see what we got to deal with and then make arrangements there,” Taylor said.