Joe Burrow will make his long awaited return to the field. On Wednesday, Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor told reporters that Burrow will play limited snaps in the team's final preseason game against the Miami Dolphins.
It will mark the first live action reps since suffering a gruesome knee injury that cut his rookie season short.
"I think that's what's best for the team. I think that's what's best for all of us, so we're going to do it," Taylor said.
"It'll be very limited. We'll be smart with what we do."
Burrow was on pace for a fantastic rookie season, throwing for 2,688 yards and 13 touchdowns in the 10 games he played. The Bengals need to get these live action reps in somehow before the regular season and wanted to be careful with bringing Burrow back slowly from the injury.
Cincinnati spent the offseason trying to revamp the offensive line and even drafted Burrow's former LSU teammate Ja'Marr Chase to complement the receiver group. As for Burrow, the second-year quarterback was working to improve his deep ball accuracy and drafting Chase is thought to be a step in the right direction.
During his 10 games as a rookie, Burrow was one of the statistically worst quarterbacks on deep throws but was fantastic on intermediate and short throws. Burrow has been lobbying to play a few snaps of a preseason game just to get his feet wet before the regular season, but to no luck so far.
Instead he's been on the headset, taking mental reps about what he'd do against a specific coverage while also helping his teammates, telling them what he's seeing on the field. After some early fall camp struggles, he's since found his confidence in the pocket again and is feeling more like his old self.
"Back to my old self, feeling great, we're getting it rolling," Burrow said. "Still got a ways before the first game but happy with where I'm at. Just getting more reps, no one was panicked and now we're back to normal 10 practices later."
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