Joe Burrow Press Conference – November 10

Joe Burrow Press Conference – November 10

You want to tell us about how you go? Felt good. It was good to be back out there. Good to be around the guys, toss around a little bit. When was this the kind of the timeline for you? When did you kind of set this as the timeline? [Music] Uh, you just you talk to a lot of different people. You talk to people that have been through it. Um, you have an understanding of what the injury is and what the repair is. And then you just talk about it critically with the doctor and the physical therapist and everybody involved and you just kind of take it day by day. See how it goes. See how it feels. What happened on the injury? Just got stuck in the turf. Typical typical turf toe. Um just got bent back too far. Can we go back to that day for you when you found out early on that it was a pretty significant injury? How did you process all of that and what were those next couple of days like for you knowing just how hard you had worked to finally have a full healthy training camp? And can you just tell us a little bit about what was going on in your mind then? Yeah, I knew it wasn’t great um when it happened. I typically typically typically have a good feel for those when it when it’s going to be fine and when it’s not. Yeah. Obviously was incredibly sad, disappointed, frustrated, angry, you know, all the all the above. Um, you let yourself feel sorry for yourself for a little bit. It’s easy when you know the couple days leading up to surgery and the couple weeks after when you can’t really do much and then it’s time to get back at it. You determined to play this year and do wins and losses leading up to when you could play matter. Yeah, we’ll see how these next couple weeks go. Um, you know, there’s a lot that goes into it. Like you said, there’s a lot of variables that you have to consider and um, we’re just going to see how these next couple weeks go. See how it feels. How tough would that be to be potentially fully healthy but still not, you know, hold yourself back from not playing given all the work you’ve taken to to get ready to this point? Yeah, we’ll just we’ll see how the next couple weeks go, see how it feels and and we’ll make we’ll make a decision. Um, you know, there’s, like I said, a lot of variables that are going to go into this and the number one is is how it’s feeling and and my health. So, we’ll just take it day by day like we have been throughout the rehab process. team has been through obviously a lot of adversity, Joe, since you left. How have you dealt with watching it? How have you dealt with supporting your teammates uh through all of the adversity the team has had? Yeah, you try to do what you can, but it’s difficult when you’re not out there and you’re not around like like you normally are. That’s the weird spot to be in. you try to do what you can and also um just grind by yourself in in the weight room and in the training room when trying to get right. There’s not uh not much more you can do. You’re not out there with the guys. You’re not at practice. So, um, return from injury is pretty lonely. What do you like about watching Joe Fleco come in and the way he’s played? Are there things that you’ve seen in the way that he’s played that you feel like you can apply to you try to learn from and apply to the way you play? Yeah, I think he obviously he’s done a he’s done a great job. Um, you know, I’ve had a lot of respect for him for a long time. He’s been on a lot of different teams for the last several years and he always goes in and plays well and puts the ball where it’s supposed to be and is accurate and um does a lot of things really well. So, it’s been fun to watch. What’s been your goals as you mentioned beyond how it feels? Is the win loss record chief among them? We’ll see. We’ll see how these next couple weeks go. We’ll see how it feels. We’ll uh we’ll make a decision when the time comes. Are you running yet? Any lower body lifting? What’s been the latest step here as you’re Yeah, we’ve been we’ve been lifting for for for a while at at this point and um running for a couple weeks now. So, we felt good about my return to to getting back on the field and um testing it out. When would you want to play? I mean, if if things let’s say the team does do well, is there a timeline of when you feel like the soonest you would be available? We got we have 21 days to to figure that out. um could be early, could be late in that window. Uh there’s, you know, we’re still we’re still pretty early postsurgery for this injury. So, we have a couple weeks of practice to to figure that out and see where it goes. How has this injury been different if it has from your knee, your wrist to the toe? It’s another another ligament injury. So, you know, I know how to deal with those. It’s not not a ton of, you know, on a scale of difficulty level coming back. This one wasn’t wasn’t really up there. I was back to moving pretty quickly and was able to get back into my strength and conditioning routine pretty quick. So, um my body’s in a good spot. You talked about coming back to your wrist like football mortality and and how that kind of opened your eyes to, you know, your career and how short it can be or just really just all of those things piling up. How do you feel right now about that? And I mean, you sat similar at a podium a couple years ago and said, you know, Super Bowl window is going to be your whole career. Another How’s your mentality changed with all that and where are you at right now? Yeah, you think about all the thing all those things for for a couple weeks when you know you’re trying to trying to get the swelling down and you’re not really moving around much. But I didn’t I haven’t really had a ton of time to think about that too much. I haven’t really been in this spot where I’ve been injured, had surgery, and still had a chance to play in in the year. So, I’ve been juggling the injury mindset where, you know, you kind of take a deep breath and um then get back to it and then juggling that with the idea that I could potentially still play this year and, you know, we could still be in it and uh and all of those things. So, it’s uh been a lot going on in my mind with with those things and it’s a difficult thing to to juggle, but um now that we’re getting closer and closer then now it’s just more season mindset. What’s been the hardest part of juggling that? You just think about a lot of different things. Think a lot about a lot of a lot of different things. A lot of different things pop into your head. um wide range of topics, good, bad, interesting, not interesting, a lot of different things. Is this probably the most frustrating injury you’ve had given that you had, you know, full you had the season last year, had offseason, you did had full camp and then for it to happen mid year so early. Is that kind of is it where does this rank among the ones you’ve had in your career? Yeah, it’s it was frustrating. They were all frustrating. Um, you know, I was really happy with where I was at and so that that part was obviously incredibly disappointing. The amount of work you put into it and and for that to to happen in that spot, it’s uh it’s tough, but that’s life in this business. What do you make of the team? Uh, team is, you know, three and six. Uh, the defense is is struggling much like it has the last few season seasons. What are your thoughts on kind of how the season has looked for y’all as a team overall? Yeah, I think early in the year the offense wasn’t rolling and I thought the defense was playing pretty pretty well and then lately seems like that has flip-flopped. Um, but there’s still guys doing good things. There’s good stuff put on tape. Uh, it just feels like we we we haven’t really put it all together. um when when you when you struggle that way, it’s uh there’s always guys doing good things, but the good things don’t coincide with other people doing good things. Um so on offense, maybe your receivers are winning, but your own line didn’t hold up. Or maybe your O line held up this time or your receivers didn’t win. on defense, it’s, you know, your guys covered well, but you didn’t get any pressure or you got pressure, but the guys got open quickly. And so, when you’re you’re struggling on offense or defense, you know, the NFL has a lot of good players. There’s going to be guys putting good stuff on tape. You know, it just feels like we haven’t really uh put it all together. I think you’ve put the number at 10 in the past is what you need to get in. Uh that’s there’s only a handful of games left. Do you feel realistic that if this team gets confined all together in Click in your mind, can this still be a playoff team? Yeah, you know, our division is wide open. There’s a lot of I think Pittsburgh’s five and four at this point. We play them this week, so you know, everything is still there in front of us. It’s very rare that our division looks like this, but it does this year. And so, you know, I think we’ll be at least in it until the end. Is it fair to say with the wild cards that the best path forward would be winning the North? And I think it would be very difficult for us to be a wild card team at this point. Obviously, a lot a lot of football to be played. Uh but, you know, I think that’s difficult. I think our best path would be win the division. It can be easy, Joe, for a locker room to start to fracture when things aren’t going as you planned at the beginning of the year. Are you even when you’re not playing able to be kind of a glue in your leadership role or is that something you have to leave to guys who aren’t playing? No, you can still pick your spots. you know, I’m not around as much, so I don’t get as many opportunities, but you know, there’s obviously guys here, guys there, spots here, spots there that you feel like you can say something like that’s not it’s never really been my a huge part of my personality and leadership style, but um it’s there and and I do pick my spots for that. Do you have a special shoe or anything in the shoe to protect your toe? Yes. your foot was it’s an ongoing process. We’re figuring out what works for me. Um and I have to have a lot of hardware in there to to protect it. So there’s been a lot that has gone into that. Yeah. When you came back off the calf, I think you in hindsight, I think in the offseason, you said probably came back a little too early from that. Have you How do you go back and having been through that experience, how did you put that into context for for the toe and maybe what might what that might look like? I I think muscle injuries are different from ligament injuries. And you know, I’ve been through been through all of them. Know how to handle them. Um I feel really good about the repair. We feel good about um how it’s how it’s been healing. It’s strong. My I’m strong. And so we felt we felt good about getting back out to practice and starting to to test it out a little bit. Um hopefully return to play. So, we’ll see where it goes. There’s some There are some theories that crystals may be involved in the healing process that uh is that what do you make of that? Doesn’t everybody have crystals? I got some crystals. Yeah. I mean, I can’t imagine it did, but I guess you never know. 21 days from today would be 4 days after Thanksgiving. How meaningful would it be to given your history in Baltimore game to come back for that game? Barry, is that your target? We’ll see. We’ll see how these next couple weeks go. Your footwork has been so important, you know, way throwing mechanics. What’s uh you know, your maybe your top concern as far as getting back to that, you know, so feet are in line with Yeah, I’m not I’m not too concerned about the actual mechanics of the throwing. That feels good. The toe the specifically the front toe isn’t very involved in that. and it’s just the the planting and I’m strong enough and we feel good about doing that um at this point. It’s just the the running cutting twitchy short stops that uh we’re going to have to see over these next couple weeks um how it feels and where that goes. Have you felt any sense of frustration with the defense in that last year? You know, you had that great season, Jamar had that great season and it still wasn’t enough and the the offseason supposed to be dedicated to fixing the defense. How do you do you have any frustration with a year later it continuing to be this the same issues that’s holding you guys back as a team? Yeah, I think there’s a lot of football left to be played, so there’s a lot to, you know, there’s a lot of blame to go around here, but there’s ample opportunity to turn that around. And like I said, I thought, you know, for half of this season, I think that I thought the defense was playing pretty good. Um, and then you know the last couple weeks I think we’ve struggled but you know there there’s good stuff on tape still and um they put that on tape. You saw it early in the year. So uh you just got to get back to playing complimentary defense and getting pressure and covering and uh putting guys in good spots. I think there’s there’s plenty of opportunity and we have all the talent in in that locker room to to make those changes. We learned on quarterback that you dabbled with the piano as you were coming back from your wrist injury. Have you done anything outside the box to rehab a toe? No, not really. A lot of piano being played in my free time these days. Um, can you a lot more a lot more free time than than anticipated. So, uh, what did you say? If you hit the pedals with your toe on the piano. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I’ve been doing that. doing that. Yeah. How hard was it to stay away from not talk to us? Not hard at all. Um, were there moments where you just didn’t want to talk about it, acknowledge it? You just had to get away from everything? For sure. For sure. A couple weeks I wanted kind of kept my distance from everybody and, you know, went through my own process and grieving and whatever you want to call it. But um then you start to feel a little better and you get back in the weight room and you start moving around a little bit and then the toe starts to feel better and so now you’re back into the groove. Jamar’s been really he’s been really productive and it seems like he’s been more vocal this year. What’s it been like to watch kind of his development in that regard? I mean he’s fun to watch. Nothing surprises me at this point. He’s going to get his no matter what’s going on. You can put the ball in his hands and he’s going to make plays. uh you target him, he’s going to make plays, he’s gonna catch the ball, he’s gonna make people miss and be very productive. I think of all the things this year, that’s the least surprising thing that I’ve seen as one of the games great PU passers. What was your take on what Blackley did against the Bears? Yeah, he’s playing he’s playing great. He’s putting the ball where it needs to go. He’s been accurate with it, getting the ball out. Um I think the O line has been playing great. We’ve been running the ball really well over these last couple weeks. That’s been exciting to see. And then obviously our guys on the outside are making plays like they always do. You spoke of your admiration for him throughout his career, but now that you’re in the same room, what about the personality of the person? What about that has uh interest interested you? Yeah, he’s he’s fun to be around. Um he’s quiet sometimes. I think we have that in common and he’ll throw some off-the-wall stuff out there every once in a while that I like that makes me laugh and uh he’s he’s fun to be around. I’m happy that uh I’ve been able to have this experience and watching him do his thing and see how he operates. Thanks. Facebook.

Joe Burrow speaks to the media.

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