Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow will require toe surgery which will sideline him for roughly 3 months according to reports.
Burrow went down with 8:36 remaining in the second quarter on Sunday against the Jaguars and could be seen needing assistance to reach the locker room. At the time, the team listed their star QB as “questionable” to return, but was ultimately replaced by Jake Browning for the rest of the contest.
Browning and the Bengals would go on to win the game 31-27 to move to 2-0 and take sole possession of 1st place in the AFC North. However, their future prospects certainly took a massive hit with news that Burrow would be sidelined likely through December.
While the team has yet to formally announce any specific injury or timeline for a return, it’s widely speculated that the 28 year old suffered a grade 3 turf toe injury in addition to some possible ligament damage as well.
After the game, head coach Zac Taylor deflected most questions surrounding the status of the team’s franchise signal caller, choosing instead to focus on the play of Browning. “Yeah, they see Jake work and so they know,” Taylor said. “They know he knows the playbook inside and out. He’s going to be making protection adjustments. He is going to be able to make the right adjustments like he did to Dre (Andrei Iosivas). He’s fully capable to go out there and lead it. We’re fortunate we have the best quarterback in the world leading the charge and we’re also very happy we have Jake as the backup.”
Indeed it appears as though Browning will be taking significant snaps for the Bengals moving forward, though the team is likely to place Burrow on IR and explore options to bring in another QB. That being said, the career back up will once again be thrust into a prominent role for a team that’s now seen their star QB suffer a significant injury for the 3rd time in his short career.
“For me, it’s one day at a time,” Browning told reporters. “It wasn’t my best game, but we won, so Sundays are happy. But come Monday, we’ll come in and get better. It’s only Week 2. That’s one of the nice things about always being prepared, is that it doesn’t change much. If anything, it’s easier. I’ll get the walkthrough reps and the practice reps. It’s significantly harder as a backup to just go through all the reads in your head when you haven’t done it.”
Across 14 games without Burrow under centre, the Bengals are a sub .500 team, and average a shade under 20 points per contest. And for a team that has a shaky defence, any kind of offensive drop off in production could spell trouble for the team in the always competitive AFC North.
Things don’t get any easier for the Bengals who, after starting their season vs. the Jaguars and Browns, will now face the Vikings, Broncos, Lions, Packers, and Steelers over the next five weeks. Each of those clubs reached the postseason in 2024, and are looking for similar results this year as well.
If Burrow’s theoretical recovery timeline holds, he could make a late season return to the lineup. However, that will largely be dependent on how well Browning & Co. are able to keep Cincinnati in the playoff mix during his absence.
If the Bengals find themselves outside the playoff picture in late December, it’s highly likely that the club may opt to just shut down the former number 1 overall draft pick for the year in an effort to give him an extended recovery period.
For now, Cincinnati will move forward with Browning, and Brett Rypien (practice squad), but expect the team to be active on the QB market in the coming days to help bolster their depth as well.
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