Joe

Burrow

Burrow has been a mainstay of the injury report this year but has not been affected by any of his minor issues. He will be out there for a must-win game versus the Steelers on Saturday. Cincinnati needs to win plus get losses from Denver and Miami to make the playoffs. While their odds of those things all happening are low, Burrow’s QB1 odds remain sky-high.

He spoke to the media. He’s been listed several times over the last month-and-change with these same two injuries. Burrow will play on Saturday against the Steelers for the right to keep the Bengals’ season alive at least one more night. The listings are just to manage his workload in practice.

This one was a battle, and Burrow led the victorious side through numerous setbacks. Burrow took seven sacks from the team leading the league in total sacks this season, Ja’Marr Chase saw shadow coverage from arguably the top coverage corner in the league in Pat Surtain, and the team missed a field goal in overtime as it appeared their season was slipping through their fingertips. Burrow fought through it all while accounting for four touchdowns, all three passing scores of which were caught by Tee Higgins. The Bengals kept their season mathematically alive but will need to beat the Steelers in Week 18 while getting some help from the Chiefs over the Broncos to sneak into the No. 7 seed out of the AFC.

Burrow has played through this designation multiple times this year, so this is no surprise at this point. The star quarterback is likely just getting managed ahead of Saturday’s win-or-season-over showdown against the Broncos.

Burrow and the Bengals were in control from the start. On their first offensive drive of the day, the Bengals strung together three straight plays of 20-plus yards and capped the 99-yard drive with a two-yard touchdown pass to Tee Higgins. He would later connect with Andrei Iosivas on a six-yard touchdown in the second quarter, and topped his strong day with a 32-yard score to Ja’Marr Chase with less than two minutes to go in the fourth quarter and the game well out of reach. Burrow’s lone blemish of the day came on a sack/fumble that was recovered by the Browns in their own red zone. Burrow’s elite play continues to be the one thing keeping the Bengals’ playoff hopes afloat, as they’ve now won three-straight games to push their record to 7-8. They’ll look to pull out a fourth-straight win next week against the Broncos, where Burrow will remain on the QB1 radar.

Ditto Joe Burrow. Higgins is being “managed” per Taylor, but he doesn’t have any concern about his workload in Week 16. Fire up Higgins in the WR2 as you normally would. Higgins seems likely to get this sort of treatment down the stretch. Higgins is also a potential shutdown candidate if the Bengals are officially eliminated from the playoffs.

Burrow got the same maintenance treatment for last Wednesday’s practice and was cleared from the report entirely by Friday. He’ll do the same this week. Still not technically eliminated from the playoffs, Burrow and the Bengals offense are playing with their lives on the line this week. Expect another QB1 outing from Burrow when he takes on the NFC North rival Browns.

Burrow got off to a rough start, throwing an interception on the Bengals’ first drive of the game. He led a scoring drive on the next possession, scrambling and finding Chase Brown for the touchdown. He then fumbled in the red zone in the second quarter and also threw an interception in the third quarter. Despite the three turnovers, the Titans balanced that out with six turnovers of their own and Burrow connected with Tee Higgins and Sam Hubbard (yes, the edge rusher) on touchdown throws in addition to Brown. With the Bengals still on the edge of the playoff hunt, Burrow is a fantasy QB1 heading into Week 16 against the Browns.

Burrow left the Bengals’ Week 14 game against the Cowboys to have a sleeve put on his knee but didn’t miss any snaps. He didn’t appear limited by the issue during the remainder of the game and participated in all three practices this week. Burrow got upgraded to a full session on Friday. Neither the knee nor the wrist injuries are an issue for Burrow, who remains a top-five fantasy quarterback to close out the year.

Burrow briefly exited the Bengals Week 14 game against the Cowboys to apply a sleeve to his left knee. He was able to return afterward and remained mobile in the pocket. Fantasy managers should not expect Burrow to miss time but he is certainly managing a new issue.