After being suspended by the Cincinnati Bengals for Sunday’s game against the Buffalo Bills, wide receiver Jermaine Burton will no longer be with the team.
The team announced on Monday the second-year wideout has been waived.
Taylor didn’t elaborate on the situation that led to Burton’s release, but expressed hope that he “gets a change of scenery and it can do good things for him.”
According to Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk, Burton’s suspension without pay for the Bills game meant he lost a game check of nearly $60,000.
Per Ben Baby of ESPN, Burton had already been ruled out for Sunday’s game due to non-injury reasons, but the Bengals announced almost 90 minutes before the scheduled kickoff that he had been suspended. Cincinnati didn’t provide a reason for his suspension.
A 2024 third-round pick, Burton has been a massive disappointment for the Bengals. He caught just four passes during his rookie season and hasn’t played in a single game this year. He was set to play in Week 13 against the Baltimore Ravens before suffering an ankle injury during Cincinnati’s final walk-through ahead of the Thanksgiving Day game, per Baby.
This isn’t the first time that Burton has been in some hot water with the Bengals, as his rookie season ended with him not making the trip for their regular-season finale against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Baby noted that the 24-year-old “has had several issues (both football and non-football related) in his career.”
The Bengals fell to 4-9 after their 39-34 loss at Buffalo on Sunday. They still have a slim chance of earning a playoff spot in the competitive AFC, but their margin of error with just four games remaining is incredibly narrow.
Burton will now go through waivers where he could be claimed by any of the 31 other teams. If no club places a waiver claim, he will become an unrestricted free agent.