Some interesting info here, most of which we already know but nice to hear it from an actual doctor. "12 weeks is the bare minimum, could take a little longer." Doctor also says that if he weren't 100%, he'd at least have a lower reinjury risk if he wanted to come back. It does seem like there's only a very slim chance that he actually comes back this year. Everything would have to go perfectly and the Bengals would have to be in contention.
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The James Rapien thumbnail photo here is hilarious. Why would he choose that out of all the options 🤣
I firmly believe Burrow will not play another snap this season.
I think he comes back the last 2 weeks depending on where the team is at maybe only week 18.
Everyone keeps saying Burrow making it back in 3 months would take a miracle, but does he have a history of being a slow healer? We know he has an injury history, but has one of his past ones taken exceedingly longer than expected? Seems he’s been pretty good about maximizing his rehab.
I’m sadly not worried about Burrow for this season.
It’s now Jake Browning’s time to shine and audition for a huge pay day. He has grit, skill, and amazing wide receivers. He isn’t Joe Burrow, but Joe wasn’t the only offense superstar on our team.
I hope Joe has a good recovery and comes back stronger.
Until then, this is Browning’s offense armed with the best WR room in the league.
Having to explain to people that just because “turf toe” sounds innocuous does not mean anything. But that’s just the problem when an injury has a colloquial name (in fairness, “metatarsophalangeal rupture” is hard for talking heads to say on TV). It’s up there with stuff like “tennis elbow” or “Tommy John surgery”; people just understand it’s “a thing that happens” but don’t know how devastating they are.
Sounds like Joes gonna need some extra dosage of TB500
So did it bend forward or backwards?
Now that I’ve had a day to cope, I think there is a real path to the playoffs. ESPN has them with a 64% chance fwiw.
They absolutely need to win this Vikes game as it is one of the most winnable games in this early stretch – especially with the Vikes starting Wentz and missing Jones and Addison. If they win this week they only need to go .500 the remainder of the season to get to 10 wins. 10 wins really looks like it will get you in the playoffs in the AFC this year. The other critical games are the Steelers series, if they do what they did in ’23 and get swept by PIT they are toast.
If you figure that BUF, BAL, and LAC are all pretty much locks to get to 10 games you need to be in the top half of the next group of the following teams: CIN, KC, DEN, PIT, HOU, JAX, NE, LV. All of which the Bengals have a 1 or 2 game lead over.
Jake needs to be a game manager and limit turnovers while leaning on his weapons and the defense needs to keep them in games. I think that we’ve seen that Jake can win in shootouts (MIN and JAX in ’23) if need be. Might want to go back and see what the hell happened in those two PIT games in ’23 as Tomlin was able to completely shut them down IIRC.
But if they are .500 or better going into the final 3 games against MIA, ARI, and CLE I think there will be some very serious discussions of Joe returning.
I think Jake is taking us to the playoffs.
I am rooting for Jake for multiple reasons. Obviously because he plays for this team, but nothing would make me happier than seeing Burrow return at some point at the end of the season, or in the playoffs.
But then again, I’m strongly against him playing if we aren’t contending. There’s really no reason for him at that point