You can’t blame Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow for thinking about his football mortality. In four years in the NFL, he’s missed chunks of time because of his knee, wrist and calf.
The injury problems started quickly last year. There was the strained calf he suffered to kick off training camp. Then in November, he tore a ligament in his throwing wrist. Burrow’s season was over before Thanksgiving.
Now, he’s back and mostly healthy as the Bengals finish minicamp before a six-week long break until training camp.
“Whenever the injuries start to stack up, your football mortality kind of comes into the back of your mind,” Burrow told reporters this week. “So that’s definitely something I’ve thought about and something I have had to fight through.”
Burrow is only 27. He topped the draft back in 2020, months after he led LSU to a national championship. After a knee injury curtailed his rookie season, Burrow led the Bengals to the Super Bowl. He took Cincinnati to the AFC title game the next season, with Burrow going head-to-head (again) against Patrick Mahomes. The rivalry between these two elite quarterbacks felt a lot like Peyton Manning and Tom Brady from back in the day.
But then came last season. Will it be an aberration?
To make sure Burrow doesn’t do too much, Dan Pitcher, Burrow’s new offensive coordinator, is keeping an eye on his reps through the Bengals OTAs and minicamp. Pitcher already was the Cincinnati quarterbacks coach. He received a promotion when Brian Callahan became the head coach of the Titans.
“That’s something we’re being more proactive about this year,” Burrow told reporters about monitoring how much he throws.
“We don’t have to be ready to go in the middle of June. We have to be ready to go early September through February. That’s how we’re attacking this offseason and this rehab plan and these practices and training camp. We’re attacking it like I want to be out there playing in February.”
Of course, active in February means the same as playing in the Super Bowl. Burrow got a taste in February, 2022, when the Bengals lost a dramatic affair to the Rams at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. Maybe there will be a return to the big game.
However, injuries have taught him more about his mental state, he said.
“You always forget how hard it is coming back from injury — that’s every time it happens,” the Bentals quarterback said. “There’s always peaks where you’re like, ‘I’m feeling great,’ and then a couple of months later you have a couple of days where it’s like, ‘Man, I’m not feeling that great.’ In the past I pushed through that and caused problems for myself, and this year I’m not doing that.”
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