The Cincinnati Bengals are just less than a week away from kicking off their 2025 NFL campaign, with Joe Burrow and company scheduled to lock horns with the Cleveland Browns on Sept. 7 on the road at Huntington Bank Field in Cleveland. But before that, the Bengals made a minor move on a two-time Super Bowl champion.
On Monday, Cincinnati announced that the team signed former Kansas City Chiefs defensive tackle Mike Pennel to its practice squad.
It appears that Pennel will eventually get called up to the main roster, with NFL insider Jordan Schultz reporting the following via a post on X (formerly Twitter):
“The plan is to start Pennel – a 2x Super Bowl champ- on the practice squad, and then get elevated early in the season. Another veteran addition to Cincinnati.”
Pennel was among the roster casualties during the NFL’s final cut day before the 2025 season. He was among the many released by the Chiefs, who signed him to a practice squad deal in 2023 before getting consecutive one-year deals with the AFC West division franchise. It was also his second stint with the team, having played for the Chiefs in the 2019 and 2020 seasons. Overall, he had 4.0 sacks, 82 combined tackles and five quarterback hits in 42 games (eight starts) in Kansas City threads.
“I think we’d always be open to that for sure,” Chiefs general manager Brett Veach said last week about the possibility of a reunion with Pennel (via Matt Derrick of Chiefs Digest). “Mike’s a guy that, I mean, he’s a special human being, and we love Mike, and he’s one of those guys that I feel every time we’ve gotten him back in short spurts, it’s been the best he has.”
That is unlikely to happen anytime soon, with the Bengals giving Pennel a shot.
At 34 years old, Pennel could potentially still contribute to the Bengals, which ranked just 25th in the NFL in 2024 with 36 defensive sacks and 26th with just a 5.91 percent defensive sack rate.
Pennel went unselected at the 2014 NFL draft, but later signed a three-year contract with the Green Bay Packers. He also had stops with the New York Jets, Atlanta Falcons and Chicago Bears.
