Jermaine Burton has yet to play this season for the Bengals. The second-year wideout continued that trend in Week 14 after he did not travel with the team. 
On Saturday, Burton was ruled out for the Bengals’ matchup against the Bills today for non-injury-related reasons. The team later announced that he had been suspended for the game. The decision will lead to over $59K in lost money by means of a forfeited game check (h/t Tom Pelissero of NFL Network). Details on what prompted this discipline have not yet emerged. Nevertheless, this represents another unwanted development for Burton.
A third-round pick last year, Burton had a quiet rookie season as Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, Andrei Iosivas, Mike Gesicki, and Chase Brown accounted for nearly 80 percent of quarterback Joe Burrow‘s targets. Burton was targeted 14 times in 2024 but only caught four balls. He did make the most of those receptions, though, proving his deep threat ability with 107 receiving yards.
This isn’t the first time the 24-year-old has not been allowed to travel with the team. In late-December 2024, Burton was accused of assault in a domestic dispute with an ex-girlfriend. Four days later, the Bengals announced that Burton would not be traveling on the team’s trip to Pittsburgh to end the season.
He hasn’t appeared in a game since that announcement, so there’s reason to believe the two data points could connect, but there’s been no reporting on the prior incident to suggest it’s been behind his extended absence this season. In fact, yesterday’s announcement of his suspension for today’s game indicates that he hasn’t been suspended to this point, so the absence throughout the year could be totally unrelated to discipline.
We can only report what we hear, and little has been coming out of Cincinnati this year concerning the second-year Alabama product. Whatever the situation, Burton may want to get on the right side of things soon. Glowing reports have already come through on the wide receivers at the top of the 2026 NFL Draft class, and the Bengals may decide to dip back into those waters if they think they can’t rely on Burton after this season.
Ely Allen contributed to this post.