Joe Burrow on Return to Football, Preparing for Bengals vs. Ravens on Thanksgiving

Joe Burrow on Return to Football, Preparing for Bengals vs. Ravens on Thanksgiving

How you feeling? Feel good. Ready to go. When uh when you got hurt, were you told this would be a three-month process and obviously you cut it down? Yeah. Um you know, originally it was 12 weeks and then, you know, we’ll start to talk about it. But just like with any injury, you start to learn more about it and start to ask questions about things you can and can’t do. You know, what do we have to avoid in certain time periods postsurgery? and just kind of take it as it goes. Did you get creative to cut that time down or um Yeah. Yeah. I guess you could say that. I think number one, I have a physical therapist in Nick and trainers mainly Matt that really understood what stressed the repair, what we could and couldn’t do in certain time periods. And so we pushed it within the limits of what what we could do and kind of just based it on how how I was feeling, how I was recovering, how it looked the next day after we pushed it and just went from there. How was last week for you getting multiple full practices in and and doing that for the first time? Yeah, it was it was it felt good. I needed it. Um felt good to to get some live reps both scout team and first team. Um and I think that’ll serve me well this week having a full week where you know you’re expecting to play and and you’re going through your preparation like like you’re going to play and then um that doesn’t happen. So um but it’s good to have that under your belt to to then go into this week where you’re not going to get a ton of full speed reps cuz it’s a Thursday night. um against a team that played a million times and uh I think that’ll serve us well. Was the unknown last week as you’re you’re pushing I think to play and you don’t know if it’s going to happen or not. Been in that situation. Yeah, I’ve been I’ve been in that spot before and you know trust the decision makers and trust the medical people and everybody that was involved in the decision-m and um you know I thought we made a good decision and and now this week we’ll be re up ready to go. Joe, just to be clear, you’re planning on starting on Thursday, correct? Like that’s that’s intention. Okay. You said that this would be very meaningful to come back on Thanksgiving. Why does this carry so much meaning to come back for this game specifically? Number one, it’s a division game. Um, I got a lot of respect for the people on the opposite side of the ball, but when you play people twice a year, it’s you you get tired of them. You don’t like them. It’s a division rivalry. You got respect for them, but um it’s intense out there. It’s something I wanted to be out there for. Playing on Thanksgiving is something I’ve always wanted to do that uh I pushed for in the past and the NFL gave it to us and then you know the injury happened and thought I wasn’t going to be able to play and then as we got closer I you know felt like it was a real possibility. So, that’s exciting to me. And, um, it’s a national stage to go out and and prove yourself again after not playing for several weeks. And every opportunity that you get to to go and prove all the hard work that you’ve put in, the type of player you are is something that uh I try to take advantage of. This is your second Thanksgiving day game, correct? I believe 18 LSU&M was Thanksgiving, correct? Uh, may maybe. I don’t quite I don’t really I don’t I don’t remember if that was Thanksgiving or not. I don’t remember planning on Thanksgiving before, but Okay. Um could could be. Okay. What What do you like about what what what’s so meaningful about that day specifically? Like why have you always liked one day? I think just like a lot of kids, you you grow up going through Thanksgiving, you have your meals with your family and then you go and sit on the couch and typically there’s not a lot on except football. Back in the day, it was Lions and somebody. You go watch Matthew Stafford throw for 300, 400 some yards with Calvin Johnson and probably lose the game. But it was fun to watch. uh you know those are memories that you have and so I kind of always wanted to to be the person out there. You’ve you’ve done some really cool things in your career. Is are you able to just appreciate how cool it is to come back from a major injury on a prime time Thanksgiving game? Is that particularly exciting for you? Yeah, I think obviously the winning and the division championships that we’ve won are are the most exciting things that that we’ve done. Um, but whenever you have an opportunity like this against a a divisional opponent that’s won five straight and you’re playing on a on a Thursday night in front of the world, that’s a that’s an exciting opportunity. When did you make up your mind, regardless of what this team’s record is or was going to be, that you were going to come back? As soon as it happened, I was I was pushing to do everything that we could to try to get back on the field. Um, I’m a football player. I get paid a lot of money to go and play a game with my friends and and we work really hard and you know it’s intense and there’s jobs on the line but at the end of the day it’s a game and I’ve worked hard to put myself in this position and get as healthy as I can be to to go out and play with these guys and that’s something I wanted to do. What are your thoughts when people say you’re the franchise, you’re the the most important player on in the organization and you should be protected for next year and going forward beyond that. Um, you understand that? Yes, I understand why people feel that way, but if you look at it from my perspective, I’m a football player and if I get hurt, I’m going to go through the rehab process and then I’m going to let everybody know when I feel like I can go out there and play. Um, I don’t really know what else to say about that. Um, I’m not gonna ever go to somebody and say, “Yeah, I’m healthy, but you know, I don’t think I don’t think I should go out there and play. That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. I’m not going to live my life and play this game scared of something happening.” Like, yeah, something’s going to happen. It’s football. Guys are going to get hurt. Guys are going to get concussions. You’re going to break bones, tear ligaments. It’s a physical intense game. That’s that’s part of this. And yeah, I’ve had injuries. Um there’s not a lot I can do about that. I I work really hard to have that not happen, but what I can do is when it does happen, I can control how I’m attacking my rehab and attacking practice and doing everything in my power to get back as quickly as possible. U that’s what I did. On the other change anything about the way you play, like extending plays and being cautious with that, or you’re out there and you just got to play the way you play. Um, we’ll see. We’ll see. I think I’m I’m feeling I’m feeling good. Good enough to go out there and move and and extend um obviously pick my spots when when to do that and when not to. Um, but I’m I feel confident that in certain moments I’ll be able to do that. Sunday probably tough loss for you to have to sit back and watch, but I mean with Pittsburgh losing as well, really didn’t lose any ground in the division race. So, at this point in time, you know, if you guys are able to win out, probably a pretty good chance that you could still get in. Are you confident that you guys can run the table down the stretch? I think we just got to take it one game at a time. I think um yeah, like you said, we pretty much have to win every game at this point and the only way that you’re going to do that is by attacking each week. Like, you have to be one and0 that week and then move on to the next. How hard has it been? I know the rehab and the injury and all of those things, but watching the team go through what they’ve gone through over the past 10 games or nine games without you, how hard has it been? Yeah, it’s it’s it’s always tough when when you’re not out there and you can’t contribute to winning or losing on the field. Um that’s typically the hardest part about this whole thing. And um so yeah, it was tough. It was tough to watch from my position. Obviously, I want to be out there with everybody. So, uh, but that’s part of it. How much have you picked Flaco’s brain and tried to learn from him? Yeah, I think whenever you have a guy that’s played that long, you can, um, especially a guy that plays so much differently than you do, uh, you can, you know, ask him what he thought in this situation or how how would you react to to this or that. And he’s played a long time and played at a high level. So, um, that’s something that I did take advantage of. Going back to the earlier question about play style in general, just not even injury related, but just having been through it and want to see get back to full strength fully. Is there something that you thought about maybe I’d like to play a little bit differently? Have you assessed how you might like to play as a quarterback moving forward, has that changed at all given what happened with this injury? Yeah, you think about a lot of different things when number one, you have time to think about them and you know, you watch a lot of games across the league and you see who’s playing well, who’s not, what’s working schematically, what isn’t. Um, you know, you you evaluate everything. Joe, what’s been your impression of of the running game the last month, month and a half, and how instrumental can that be in kind of helping you ease your way back in? Yeah, we got to keep building on that. That’s been that’s been a positive of everything that’s been going on. I think we’ve been physical. I think um schematically we’ve done a lot of things to to get our an advantage in that in that realm and uh we got to keep building on it. Chase is going to run like he runs. He’s going to make people miss and have explosive plays. Uh we just got to keep blocking the way that we are in the run game and I think that momentum will carry. I assume it’s fair to say the toe is not 100%. Where would you put it right now? It’s tough to say. I feel I feel confident that I can go out and do everything that I need to do to to win a game. Can you take us through and this is going way back to the injury, but just take us through the play where you’re looking at Jamar and and what was going on through your mind during that play. Obviously, you end up getting hurt on. Yeah, that was uh you know, you’re trying to get the ball out and some unexpected things happen that you know, you can’t really let it go and then um pocket starts to collapse and you try to buy a little time and then I just tried to give myself up and my foot got caught in the turf. So, um unlucky. Is there anything you could have done differently? I mean, he’s obviously jammed up. It’s not free. you’re trying to hit him right away. Like quarterbackwise, is there anything that you would have done differently in that moment? Hindsight’s 2020. You can’t you can’t play a play or game or a practice or anything worried about getting hurt or doing anything like that. So, um there’s not anything I would have done differently in that play. Safe safe to say this is an extremely unique situation where football expression is trains moving at 100 miles an hour and you’re jumping onto a moving train at 100 miles an hour. Have you thought about that about what you’re going to have to do not only physically but mentally to get ready and be ready to play at that level? Yeah, it’s certainly a different mental space you have to be in throughout the week to prepare the way you need to to go out and play great. Um, that’s one of the me reasons I wanted to to get uh two full weeks of practice before I went out there and performed. Um, and then, you know, we we were going to move up that timeline and then, um, obviously didn’t end up playing last week, but, you know, preparing that whole week like I was going to play, I think, uh, beneficial putting yourself in that mental state to get back into the swing of things. It’s a it’s a it’s an intense place to be at times. So, I’m glad I had that week to uh feel that before Thursday. In 2022 and 2023, you basically missed like six weeks of camp and came back and played with about two weeks of practice. Did that feel at all similar to this? Just in terms of missing a decent chunk of time and coming back with limited practice reps. Um, yeah, maybe a little. I think, you know, I think I’ve had more practice this year. I went through a full training camp. I got preseason reps, played a game, played another quarter and a half, uh, and then had two full weeks these last two weeks. So, I think I’m probably in a more advantageous spot this time than that time. So, um, I’m happy about that. In 22, I think after the FI won the division, I think somebody asked you about the the window. You said the windows your whole career. Has that changed in your mind after what’s happened over the last three years? How much how much have you thought about that championship window given what’s happened now since you made that statement to now? Yeah, I think anytime any of us step foot on the field, we are confident that we can go and beat whoever. I’m I’ll never step on the foot on the field when I don’t think we can win. when I don’t think that I can go out and play great and put us in a position to win. The second that that happens, then I shouldn’t be playing anymore. So, uh I’m always confident in in myself and my teammates for sure. Whether it’s this year or next year, whenever, what needs to happen from here on out to put y’all position to be contending and in a position to be pushing towards the playoffs with a with better odds than where you’all have been this year and last year? Players got to go play great. We got to go play, you know, We have good coaches. We have There’s not There’s not a scheme in the NFL that is so revolutionary that is going to completely change the way a player plays the game. Um, coaches work really hard and are smart and they work a lot of hours to put players in position to make plays. And at the end of the day, you have to go make plays and you have to play great within that system. So, um, at the end of the day, players have to take some accountability and go and play really good. Joe, what went into the decision for you not to play on Sunday? A lot of things. A lot of things. Um, at the end of the day, it was Zach’s decision. You know, we went into that week. I had a good workout early in the week. Uh, I was feeling good. And Wednesday, Thursday practice happened. I took a lot of reps. My body was pretty sore. Um, not necessarily my toe. My toe feels great, but just the rest of my body being back out there for so long. And, uh, I was confident that I could get that right in order to to play on Sunday. But, um, Zach ended up thinking that Thursday was it it was better to to wait the extra four days, and I think that was a good decision. So, so if he said green light, you would have been prepared to do it. Correct. I would have, but um I’m not trying to put you against Zach. I’m just I gota I gota uh yeah, it was uh at the end of the day it was head coaches call. Joe, in these final six games back here, sorry. Is there anything you hope to prove to yourself or to the outside world in these final six games? I just want to go and play well. I want to go and win games. That’s what that’s what we try to do. Uh go make plays, get my guys the ball. I just want to go and play well. How much did you How much did you miss it? Yeah, you all you miss it. You miss it a lot. You know, it’s it’s tough to to be in those situations. Um but I’ve been in that spot before. It’s uh the first time is typically the hardest and then second time a little less hard but still hard. And then the third time you’re like, “Come on guys.” like maybe we could stop doing this to me. But um we got through it. We’re back and I’m feeling good about mentioned apology yesterday. You seem bothered by his actions. Do you think you’ll see a different intensity about him this week or Thursday night? No, he’s he’s who he is. Um he’s an intense great player that uh he’s going to go out and do what he does on the field. He’s going to prepare the way that he does no matter any extenduating circumstances. I don’t think there’s going to be much different. The performances you and Lamar have had against each other. It’s just so rare to see intra division passers like this. You go back. Manning really never had that inner division guy. Same with Brady. Do you acknowledge that might be a big part of your story someday when it’s all said and done? these these chapters with Lamar and these numbers that continue to pop up when you guys square off. Yeah, for sure. I think obviously every everybody sees how great of a player he is and how hard he works and how he improves every single year. Obviously have a lot of respect for him and and love competing against him.

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow is ready to face the Baltimore Ravens during the first Thanksgiving game of his NFL career. Burrow shares his mindset during his injury recovery, his lifelong desire to play in an NFL game on Thanksgiving, his view on the team’s slim postseason chances and more.

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