The Cincinnati Bengals have announced that starting quarterback Joe Burrow will not play again this season.
After being removed from his team’s loss to Baltimore on Thursday night prior to halftime, it was revealed that the former LSU Tiger suffered a torn ligament in his right wrist. It’s likely that Burrow will require surgery to repair the wrist on his throwing hand.
“I was just going to tape it up and give it a shot,” Burrow said. “I just couldn’t.”
That makes two AFC North QB’s in the span of a week who have been ruled out for the season following a season ending injury to Browns QB Deshaun Watson. In his place, Cincinnati is expected to turn to Jake Browning who went 8 for 14 with a TD against the Ravens after Burrow was removed from the game.
The news is a major blow to the Bengals Super Bowl aspirations. After entering Thursday night with 12-1 odds to win it all this season, the club has seen their lines shift to 150-1 or longer at most major sportsbooks. Sitting at 5-5, Cincinnati now finds themselves outside the wildcard playoff picture, and suddenly without their franchise QB to boot.
Making matters worse, the Bengals now find themselves under league investigation about Burrow’s absence from the team injury report heading into Thursday night. In a since deleted video, the former number 1 draft pick was seen wearing a wrist wrap when arriving in Baltimore. However head coach Zac Taylor attempted to convince reporters that the device Burrow was wearing was completely unrelated to the injury suffered last night.
If Cincinnati is found to have circumvented the league’s injury reporting protocols, they could be fined or even lose draft picks as a result. Given the league’s headfirst dive into the world of fantasy sports, and online gambling, a failure to disclose a pre-existing injury to arguably the team’s most important player could have potentially swung millions of dollars in wagers placed.
Whether anything ultimately comes as a result of those investigations remains to be seen. Cincinnati is next in action on November 26th against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: Maryland GovPics. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.