“I still talk to a lot of guys in Arizona, plus I train with a lot of guys out there, too, because that’s where I live in the offseason,” Moch added. “It will be good to put on a show on the green Sunday.”
The day after Arizona released Moch in March, the Bengals brought him back to Cincinnati, which is where his career began as a third-round draft pick in 2011.
A preseason foot injury and ongoing battle with migraines derailed his rookie year. Experimenting with different ways to combat the migraines led to Moch drawing a four-game suspension for violating the performance-enhancing substances policy to start the 2012 season. Shortly after he returned, so did the migraines, ending his season.
Moch had 3.5 sacks in the 2012 preseason and three more last preseason with the Bengals, but he was one of the final cuts and ended up signing with Arizona, where he appeared in four games.
“Hopefully this time I can put up enough numbers to stay,” Moch said, adding that thanks to organic treatment he has not had a migraine in nearly two years.
He had one of the Bengals’ six sacks in the preseason opener at Kansas City before sitting out last week’s game against the Jets with a hip strain. But he’s back at practice this week and expects to be on the field Sunday night to try to prove he belongs among a talented and deep group of defensive linemen.
“All I can control is what I put out there what my output is, not who they’re bringing in or who they’re playing,” he said. “I just have to show them I can contribute and hopefully show that amongst the others.”
Deal delay: The Bengals have not finalized the four-year, $20 million contract extension for linebacker Vontaze Burfict that was reported Wednesday.
Burfict did not practice Wednesday due to what defensive coordinator Paul Guenther described as a stomach bug, and he was not dressed for practice Thursday, although he was on the field.
Burfict was in the locker room during the period open to the media Thursday morning, but he declined all interview requests through the team’s media relations department.
Kicks return: After two weeks of experimenting with snapping extra points from the 15-yard line, the NFL is going back to attempting the kicks from the 3 for the remainder of the preseason and the entire regular season.
Kickers missed five of 1,321 extra points last year, but there were eight missed in the first 33 preseason games this summer.
“That’s going to happen when you make something more difficult for a group of people,” Bengals kicker Mike Nugent said. “For me it was just hit the same ball. Just because it’s backed up a little bit, don’t change anything or try to hit it differently.”
Injury update: In addition to Burfict, others who did not practice Thursday were cornerbacks Darqueze Dennard (hip) and LaVelle Westbrooks (undisclosed), running backs Rex Burkhead (knee) and BenJarvus Green-Ellis (undisclosed), guard Mike Pollak (knee), quarterback Tyler Wilson (head) and defensive end David King (undisclosed).
Pollak has been taking regular days off to rest his knee since training camp began. Burkhead suffered the knee injury in Saturday’s game against the Jets and was riding a stationary bike. Dennard was doing work on the side.
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