'It was absolutely the right decision' — Zac Taylor sounds off on sidelining Jermaine Burton vs Raiders
If you had heard the Cincinnati Bengals scored 41 points this week without Tee Higgins, you'd be forgiven to think Jermaine Burton helped the offense find success it had been lacking without one of its stars. You'd also be surprised to hear that not only did Burton not catch a single pass, he didn't take […]
If you had heard the Cincinnati Bengals scored 41 points this week without Tee Higgins, you'd be forgiven to think Jermaine Burton helped the offense find success it had been lacking without one of its stars. You'd also be surprised to hear that not only did Burton not catch a single pass, he didn't take one step onto the field.
The Bengals made Burton a healthy inactive for Sunday's game and reports emerged after the fact that him missing Saturday's walkthrough was the reasoning for it. It's about as inexcusable of a mistake as a player could make, and head coach Zac Taylor acted accordingly.
After the Bengals' 41-24 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders, Taylor explained that Burton was going to be heavily featured in the game plan, but stood by the decision to scrap all of it in favor of sidelining him as punishment.
"Jermaine was a big part of the plan, and as the week unfolded, there was a lot of positive things people were saying about him. It was all true, and then late in the week, we just got to handle all of our business the right way," Taylor told reporters. "And so I can sit here and say it was a difficult decision to make him inactive but it was absolutely the right decision with all the information we had."
Instead of Burton playing significant snaps in Higgins' place, Trenton Irwin stepped in as a starter and Kendric Pryor caught his first NFL pass after being elevated from the practice squad. Joe Burrow still threw for five touchdown passes and led an efficient offensive attack despite his dissatisfied assessment of the day overall.
All of this being the result of last-second planning as Burton wasn't in attendance for the final preparations. The Bengals have dealt with this before when both of Higgins' injuries this year occurred late in the week of practice. Scrapping game plans due to the carelessness of a player can't be tolerated.
Burton couldn't dress Sunday if Taylor wanted to send the right message to the rest of the team, no matter how much the needs him to get reps this season. Being accountable matters, no matter the experience level of the player. Burton is still just 23 years old and has had character concerns follow him for the last several years transitioning from college to the pros. This weekend was another example of how that process is going.
But the future isn't set with this setback. Taylor, never one to publicly shame one of his players, proclaimed Burton's future to be much brighter than his past, and days like Sunday are necessary towards ensuring that.
"He's a guy who's going to have, I think, a really good career here, and we're going to support him and he wants to do things the right way," Taylor said. "And today was just a necessary step we had to make, but we're going to get him back in the fold and keep him moving along and becoming a pro.
"There's things to love about Jermaine, so his best days are in front of him, and we're going to make sure he achieves that."
Higgins is still dealing with a quad injury and the Bengals were also without Charlie Jones this week as well. There's a clear window for Burton to assert himself with more playing time, but he needs to get out of his own way first.
That comes with discipline, which is exactly what he received Sunday.
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