Joe Burrow was a full participant in practice on Wednesday (November 19). The Cincinnati Bengals opened their 21-day practice window last week with the presumed return time as Week 14 against the Buffalo Bills. He said himself that Thanksgiving against the Baltimore Ravens was his goal. Now, could there be a legitimate shot he returns this week against the New England Patriots?
Burrow is coming back from a Grade 3 Turf Toe injury, which needed surgery. Turf Toe injuries very rarely require surgery, just showing how severe it was in Burrow’s case. We saw Brock Purdy come back a tad too soon and aggravated his own Turf Toe injury, so should the Bengals be so eager to bring Burrow back?
Sitting at 3-7, the Bengals are third in the AFC North and currently have a top-10 pick in next year’s draft. The road ahead features four tough games in a row, followed by three winnable ones (on paper).
Is Burrow really about to rush back to try an salvage the Bengals’ season? Should he?
Joe Burrow Returning From Injury Is Exciting…But Is It The Right Move?
From the jump, it was obvious that Burrow was going to do anything and everything that he could to get back onto the field in 2025. The job of the team and Jake Browning (at the time) was to keep the team in a position to compete when/if Burrow returns. Since Burrow’s injury, the Bengals have floundered their way to lose seven of eight. Burrow is about as stubborn and competitive as any in the NFL. If there was even a single-digit percent chance that Burrow could have returned this year, he was going to go for it.
As a result, he is a full participant, not even 10 weeks after his injury.
This is the same quarterback who said, “The window’s my whole career…our window is always open.” There is nobody more confident in Burrow’s ability to play the quarterback position and win than Burrow himself. Despite the fact that the Bengals sit at 3-7, Burrow likely believes that he can lead the Bengals on an unprecedented run to win the division.
Burrow is an elite quarterback. Even on his worst day, he’s a top-half quarterback. On his best day, he could be argued to be the top quarterback in the NFL. When it comes to him, there is little concern about whether or not he can do his job.
With seven games to go, there is no margin for error anymore. The Bengals must win out to get back into the conversation. Burrow can do it…can the Bengals?
No Ja’Marr Chase
If Burrow returns this week, he will have to go up against the fifth-best scoring defense and eighth-best total defense in the Patriots. New England also possesses the top rushing defense, while its secondary is middle-of-the-road. With all of that, Burrow would be without Ja’Marr Chase. Chase will be serving a one-game suspension for allegedly spitting on Jalen Ramsey after a few after-the-whistle hits from the Steelers safety.
Burrow has played without Chase a few times in his career. According to StatMuse, Burrow has played four games without Chase, all in 2022. In those four games, the Bengals are 3-1, and Burrow averaged about 266 yards per game.
Tee Higgins has been having a solid season to this point, thanks to the last few games. Over the last four games, Higgins has converted 29 targets into 17 catches for 324 yards and five touchdowns, scoring at least once in each.
The issue isn’t that Higgins can’t be WR1, it’s that there is nobody behind him that Burrow can trust. Andrei Iosivas has earned a handful of targets, but he has been inconsistent to this point. Jermaine Burton has been a healthy scratch all year. Could it be a Mitchell Tinsley breakout game?
Regardless, it’s not looking great for the offense, Burrow or no Burrow.
Historically Bad Defense
The fact of the matter is that even if Burrow returns at any point, his defense will let him down. The Bengals’ defense cannot tackle. The Bengals’ defense cannot get a single stop when it needs to. Last week, against a Mason Rudolph-led Steelers offense, the Bengals could not get a stop…on EITHER drive. Yes, the Steelers only had the ball twice in the second half and scored on both drives.
Cincinnati became the second team in NFL history to allow at least 27 points in nine consecutive games. Considering the offenses that are on tap over the next four weeks, it’s safe to say that the record will be broken.
With Joe Flacco at quarterback, the Bengals’ offense was legitimately one of the best for three weeks. In those three weeks, the offense scored 33, 38, and 42 points. The Bengals lost the two higher-scoring games. They scored 80 points in two weeks and lost both games.
There is nothing the offense can do to get over the defense’s legendary ineptitude. Burrow and the offense will have to be perfect. While that could be fine for a while, it always comes to a head. It happened last year a handful of times. The offense scored more than 30 points seven times last year…and lost four. Three of those games were within the AFC North, and the other was that loss to the Washington Commanders, who were never forced to punt.
We’ve seen this movie before. Burrow may think he can save the season. He can’t.
Should He Return?
Seeing Burrow suit up for the Bengals could give the team and fanbase a jolt. It would be akin to Superman flying in just in time to beat the big bad guy terrorizing Metropolis.
Can Burrow overcome the defensive ineptitude? He tried last year and still missed the playoffs.
Will there be any rust? Burrow has been notorious for slow starts, usually in the first few weeks of the season. Will he need time to ramp up?
Honestly, for Burrow and the future of the Bengals, someone needs to sit him down and explain that his playing is an exercise in futility at best and an unnecessary risk to his health at worst.
The Bengals are 3-7. Their defense is ungodly terrible and is on pace to be the worst ever fielded.
If Burrow comes back and salvages a few wins, what good does that serve? Obviously, the players and coaches do not actively tank for draft picks. However, those wins would be the difference between drafting an instant-impact player like Caleb Downs and falling down the board and taking a project who ends up grading out as the worst first-round pick of his class…again.
Seeing Burrow playing again would be awesome for the vibes. In reality, if he gets a few wins and the Bengals overreact to another “dead cat bounce,” as Jake Liscow of the “Locked on Bengals Podcast” puts it, it would be a net negative. It would likely save jobs that shouldn’t be saved. It would knock the Bengals out of premium draft position.
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