The Cincinnati Bengals lost 34-20 to the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday night. To add injury to insult, quarterback Joe Burrow was unable to play in the second half with a wrist injury. Head coach Zac Taylor speculates that it is a sprained wrist, but there is concern that the Bengals knew about the injury and didn’t report in throughout the week. The NFL is conducting an investigation into this, which is routine to do in this situation but still noteworthy.
While this seems like the typical process for injuries, the Bengals’ situation looks worse because they had released a video of Joe Burrow deplaning in Baltimore, but were quick to delete it. The recovered footage shows Burrow donning some sort of wrist guard, but it was played off as an iPad glove to streamline the quarterback’s ability to watch film during the flight.
The @PrimeVideo broadcast showed this video of #Bengals QB Joe Burrow getting off the team bus with a brace/wrap around his right wrist and thumb.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) November 17, 2023
Burrow wasn’t on the injury report. Now he’s questionable with a right wrist injury. Jake Browning is in. pic.twitter.com/6ozbQ2SX1k
If the NFL investigation finds that Cincinnati violated its policy about injury reporting, the team can be subject to a fine and even be docked a draft pick in serious cases. The latter result is very rare, though, so if the NFL finds anything, it is more likely to be the fine.
Burrow will have an MRI on his wrist to determine the extent of the injury. If he can play through the pain, a sprained wrist could sideline him for a week or two. A worse injury could see him out the remainder of the regular season since it is on his throwing hand, and he was unable to make a pass on the sideline last night.
A glimpse of what Joe Burrow is dealing with on what the team now says is a right wrist injury: pic.twitter.com/nOW3qR0RhR
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) November 17, 2023
Cincinnati sits at 5-5 and will have a mini bye week, which comes at a good time when they need to get healthy. They will face the Pittsburgh Steelers next week, followed by the Jacksonville Jaguars, Indianapolis Colts and Minnesota Vikings. Jake Browning filled in for Burrow in Thursday night’s loss and finished 8-of-14 for 68 yards and a touchdown with four carries for 40 yards on the ground in garbage time. If Burrow ends up needing to miss significant time, the Bengals could look into bringing in a free agent quarterback to try and keep them in the playoff hunt.