I can remember Bobby Hebert telling a story about when he was QB with the Falcons. He got hit hard and had a concussion. Jeff George was the backup and went in for him. George got hit and had a jammed pinky finger or something minor like that and demanded that he be taken off the field on the cart. Hebert had to go back in the game with a concussion. The O-line vowed that nobody would touch him for the rest of the game, no matter what. They then got something like 10 holding penalties through the rest of the game. Hebert HATED Jeff George.

If Burrow plays tonight and he's already gimpy, their O-line will probably have to do something similar. There will probably be a ton of holding on the Bengals tonight.
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yeah a ton of holding calls is going to kill the offense and make it harder to win and if you start Burrow you have to win. I honestly don't understand playing him unless he really is 100%
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I try to play devils advocate given that we’ve let Patrick play on a high ankle sprain and a dislocated knee cap (which had low % risk but potential for substantial damage). But this feels quite a bit different. This isn’t about pain management, this is a guy who seems a high % risk of serious injury.

They shouldn’t have thrown him out there to begin the season. And they sure as hell shouldn’t do it now when they allowed him to reaggravate it
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Burrow will likely get his way, he wants to be Ironman Mahomes in the worst possible way so he'll lobby' em until he gets his way... and may well end his season in doing so

So get out there and give' em hell, Joe!11
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I don’t doubt for a second his toughness. The question is if you have a “no bullshit” guy like Reid that will not clear without medical clearance. And I think that org is so desperate to win there is no voice of reason to stop burrow from getting in his own way
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Just spoke to @Bengals HC Zac Taylor and asked about the status of QB Joe Burrow tonight. He said “we aren’t ready to reveal a decision just yet and will wait a couple more hours before we make a call” #mnf @ESPNNFL

— Laura Rutledge (@LauraRutledge) September 25, 2023

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This could actually be Aaron Donald right now


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Bengals are a wounded animal fighting for life.

That's a dangerous thing. Of course one good hit on Burrow and its season over for Cincy here.
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Yeah that's a fair comparison but it's not the playoffs and I don't think it's a must win game unless he plays. And what's the Bengals plan, to play him until the bye week? They're screwing themselves for the back half of their season where they absolutely need him 100%
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Burrow is tough, but man.

Considering the investment they just made in him, you'd have to be pretty certain there was no injury risk to move forward on playing him.

Worst case-scenario in this is pretty bad (Calf isn't good, he pushes it to far, blows an Achilles').
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Yeah Burrow is tough but you need someone to tell him no. Mahomes didn't want to go out for an injury, he said he was fine but Reid forced him to go get the xrays. And Reid was right to do that
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We'll know for sure in three hours, but I'm betting on the "no strong voice of reason" angle winning out... as you say, they're desperate
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Getting RGIII vibes for sure
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I think the closer example was a few years ago where he played on a high ankle sprain. And then we put him back in on a quick timeline after dislocating his knee cap despite some risk of serious re-injury. But I think that’s way more example of pain management in the first and significantly lower % chance of serious injury in the second example. I’d like to think we’ve never done anything like this to mahomes
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