Wilson was carted off in the second quarter of Sunday’s loss to the L.A. Chargers and appeared the most serious of the ailments.
“He’s got a shoulder injury and certainly will miss a week, maybe a couple of weeks,” Taylor said Monday. “That would be the bright side of things. So, we’ll just have to see where it goes from there. We’ll kind of go through the week and get some more information on it, but certainly out for this week.”
Taylor said quarterback Joe Burrow “feels good” for someone who dislocated his right pinky and played through it, but he could be limited early in the week. Cornerback Chidobe Awuzie, who suffered a foot injury on an interception return, will need more evaluation over the course of the week, as will linebacker Markus Bailey, who suffered a stinger.
Center Trey Hopkins and right tackle Riley Reiff, who missed Sunday’s game because of ankle injuries, remain “day to day,” Taylor said.
“Hopefully (we) get them back to practice this week and see where they’re at for this week,” Taylor said.
The biggest thing with Burrow this week could be giving his finger some rest to take some of the pressure off and make sure he “can be the most effective he can be” on Sunday. Nothing has changed in terms of expectations for him to play.
Burrow injured his pinky on the first series when he was strip-sacked and could be seen at halftime wincing while trying to throw the ball. Wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase on Monday said his passes were still accurate but “a little wobbly” and not the perfect spiral they usually are.
“I’m sure it wasn’t fun,” Taylor said. “I can’t imagine throwing with an injured pinky on your throwing hand and having to manage the game but that just kind of speaks to who Joe is. Joe doesn’t want to talk about it during the game. He just wants to keep calling the plays I was gonna call, and he’s gonna make it work and he did, he really did and you know I’m sure it was painful. He had to tough through it but he didn’t detract from our performance in any way because of the pinky.”
If Bailey is unavailable this week, that leaves the Bengals with just four linebackers. Akeem Davis-Gaither and Jordan Evans are already on injured reserve. Germaine Pratt took over the communication on defense when Wilson went down and Joe Bachie finished the game as the other linebacker.
Clay Johnston saw time on one defensive snap, and the Bengals could be looking at practice squad players like Austin Calitro or Keandre Jones to step up if needed.
“Guys are gonna have to step up, and I thought Joe Bachie did,” Taylor said. “He jumped into that role without a lot of reps and held it down for us there in the second half. And so, again, we’re gonna need guys like him stepping up if Markus isn’t able to go.”
Cornerback Mike Hilton said it was “tough” losing Awuzie and Wilson, though he credited the guys that replaced them. Vernon Hargreaves filled in for Awuzie on Sunday for his first action with the Bengals since they claimed him off waivers Nov. 4.
The Bengals also were without Darius Phillips, who was dealing with injury early last week but ended up being inactive after two days of full participation in practice.
“You’re losing your mike linebacker, the guy that sets the defense, makes the calls and you’re also losing your No. 1 corner,” Hilton said Monday. “It’s tough, but guys stepped up. Joe Bachie, he came in and made some plays, Vernon Hargreaves came in for Chido and made some plays. At this juncture of the season guys start going down and guys have to step up and make plays. I know they’ll be excited about the opportunity they’ll have this week.”
The Bengals gave up several explosive plays to the Chargers, but Taylor didn’t think the changes in personnel impacted communication to the point that it became a major issue. He said there were other reasons for those big plays.
“A lot of them were one on one, guys weren’t in position and their guy made a play,” Taylor said. “A couple of them were coverage issues, but I don’t think it came down to who was wearing the green dot. I thought Germaine did a great job communicating there as the game went on. You know, he hasn’t always had that, but he did a nice job there and he understands the defense and is a great communicator there. So we’ll continue to assess that but I thought our guys you know, even the depth guys that came in did a good job holding down the fort for us.”
SUNDAY’S GAME
49ers at Bengals, 4:25 p.m., CBS, 700, 1530, 102.7, 104.7
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