Bengals: 16 players will be held out against Packers

The Bengals' preseason has been defined by injuries. Thursday night's game against the Packers will be no different.

By Paul Dehner Jr.

Aug 23, 2012 at 5:50 pm ET • 1 min read

The Bengals preseason has been defined by injuries. Thursday night's game against the Packers will be no different. Cincinnati does not expect 16 of their 85 players to participate due to injury. For those keeping score, that's 18.8 percent of the team's roster. Five of those are cornerbacks, a position where only Chris Lewis-Harris has participated in every practice.

Here are the expected inactives:

CB Brandon Ghee, CB Adam Jones, CB Jason Allen, CB Dre Kirkpatrick, CB Shaun Prater, RB Bernard Scott, RB BenJarvus Green-Ellis, S Robert Sands, S Tony Dye, LB Rey Maualuga, DE DeQuin Evans, OL Travelle Wharton, DL Pat Sims, DL Carlos Dunlap, DL Robert Geathers, TE Jermaine Gresham.

Sands, who is battling for the fourth safety position, sits at the top of the list of those who can't afford to miss this opportunity. A fifth-round selection in 2011, Sands already stands on the outside looking in at the roster. All but Ghee, Prater, Wharton, Sims, Geathers and Dunlap are expected to be back for the opener against Baltimore.