But the woman involved in the incident later retracted her statement to police and requested that charges be dropped. Young also suffered a leg fracture midway through the 2025 season but was able to return for the team’s College Football Playoff loss to Ole Miss.While other teams may have shied away from taking the talented receiver on account of that history, the Bengals did so with complete confidence, it seems.Head coach Zac Taylor has made it clear that the team did extensive research on Young and came away confident in him as a human being. “Talking to all the humans we talked to that really stood on the table for him, and Georgia returned him to play,” Taylor said following the selection of Young.

“We just felt really comfortable with the person we are adding to our locker room, the person we are adding to our community, just all of us getting to know the kid. “We feel really, really comfortable with bringing Colbie in here, and I think once you all get to know him, you will see the same thing we see.”Taylor added that the Bengals “have a lot of people that have done a lot of research on [Young]” and that this time he feels “comfortable” and “great” about the situation. Hopefully, this isn’t another Jermaine Burton situation, and we get to see Young consistently on the field catching passes from Joe Burrow."There's been times I've signed up for great risk in the past… This is one I feel great about."Zac Taylor's response to Colbie Young's off-the-field issues.@WLWTpic.twitter.com/sn7SPIPd3j— Jaron May (@jaron_may) April 25, 2026