Joe Burrow keeps the door open as much as possible in first press conference back from turf toe injury
Burrow speaks for the first time in nearly two months.
The Cincinnati Bengals captured the news cycle Monday afternoon by announcing Joe Burrow’s return to practice. Burrow will not play in Sunday’s matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers, but he does get three weeks to practice without counting against the 53-man roster.
Burrow was expected to have a three-month recovery timeline from when he had surgery on Sept. 19 to repair his turf toe injury. Instead of late December, the 28-year old is now on track to being activated to the roster in November if everything goes well with practicing again. He took that first step Monday inside Cincinnati’s indoor facility.
As for when Burrow will officially be back to playing in games, he’s not making any promises, but he remained completely consistent with what he did say in his first press conference in nearly two months.
Joe Burrow, Bengals ‘we’ll see’ about pretty much anything from here on out
As promising as it is for Burrow to be practicing again, it’s not a given that he actually does play again this season. Clearance to practice was a sign that his recovery is in a great spot and a return to the field is attainable.
Everything beyond that?
“You just kind of take it day by day,” Burrow told reporters Monday. “See how it goes, see how it feels.”
Burrow is going to do a lot of seeing how things go and feel in the coming days and weeks, and it’s not just about him.
The Bengals are a meager 3-6 entering Week 11 and could be out of the playoff race shortly if they don’t start stacking some wins. Is Burrow determined to play no matter if the postseason is a possible outcome?
“We’ll see how these next couple weeks go,” Burrow said. “And there’s a lot that goes into it. Like you said, there’s a lot of variables that you have to consider. And we’re just gonna see how these next couple weeks go, see how it feels.”
If some wins do transpire before his activation, is there a timeline in place for him to return as early as possible?
“We got, we have 21 days to figure that out,” Burrow said. “Could be early, could be late in that window. We’re still pretty early post-surgery for this injury. So we have a couple weeks of practice to figure that out and see where it goes.”
During that time, Burrow is not too concerned with his footwork throwing the ball, but rather the other tasks he needs his front toe for that he’ll — you guessed it — see and feel how it goes.
“I’m not too concerned about the actual mechanics of the throwing,” Burrow said. “That feels good, the toe, specifically, the front toe, isn’t very involved in that, it’s just the planting. And I’m strong enough, and we feel good about doing that at this point. It’s just the running, cutting, twitchy short stops that we’re going to have to see over these next couple of weeks, how it feels and where that goes.”
And after all that seeing and feeling, there’s a game a few days before his 21-day window expires against the Baltimore Ravens. Burrow said it would be “very” meaningful to return for that one. Is that his target return date?
“We’ll see,” Burrow said. “We’ll see how these next couple weeks go.”
We’ll see indeed.
Cincinnati Bengals News
Joe Burrow surprises everyone with latest injury update, and Bengals fans can now officially circle their calendars
Burrow has been cleared to practice by Cincinnati.
