After a shoulder brace sparked panic in Cincinnati, the Bengals' star quarterback brushes off injury fears with a gritty ultimatum: unless he's undergoing surgery, he is playing.
The offseason was fairly quiet on the injury side for the Cincinnati Bengals this year, and fans were looking forward to entering a new season with a nearly completely healthy roster. Besides Shemar Stewart and Ja’Marr Chase, there wasn’t much injury news that brought concern about their availability at the beginning of the season.
It seemed as if the Bengals came out of their 33-27 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers unscathed, but news broke today that is bringing back some dark memories.
Joe Burrow participated in a limited capacity at practice Wednesday, according to Jeremy Rauch of FOX19, and was seen with some sort of brace on his throwing shoulder. Fans on X immediately voiced their anger and began speculating about when the injury occurred last Sunday. While the concern is there, Burrow cleared up any questions regarding the injury following practice.
He called the injury back tightness, saying it was simply normal soreness players get following a physical game. Burrow added that he didn’t feel the pain at all until after the contest, which he described as how it usually is with that type of discomfort.
It’s believed that the play that caused this injury occurred in the first half when Burrow took a hard hit on that throwing shoulder while making a run for the first-down marker.
Though Burrow did not practice at full capacity Wednesday, he made sure to mention the importance of mental reps. At this point in the year, the team isn’t doing much 11-on-11 work with the starting offense and defense, so staying locked in mentally without physical action isn’t the end of the world.
So what does this mean for Burrow and the offense entering Sunday’s Week 2 matchup in Houston with the Texans? As of now, there is no official word on whether Burrow will play this week, but he made it seem like there isn’t a chance he misses a game unless there are exigent circumstances preventing him from taking the field on game day.
“If I am not getting surgery, I’ll be out there,” he said.
That should at least settle some of the worry, potentially for teammates and fans, about whether or not they’re going to see their franchise quarterback in pads this coming Sunday. Only time will tell if his statement proves true, but Burrow seems to be a man who doesn’t say things he doesn’t mean too often.
Burrow's injury history is already a huge talking point for media personalities across the country, and this news will only add fuel to the fire. I expect him to be under center this Sunday rather than backup Joe Flacco.
