Cincinnati Bengals QB Joe Burrow opens up about mental toll injuries have taken on him
Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow took the podium following the first minicamp practice with an introspective approach.
The 27-year-old has had more time to sit with his thoughts than he’d like in the last four years. Burrow underwent season-ending surgery on the scapholunate ligament in his right wrist in November. This came after a battle with a nagging calf injury last year in training camp.
The year before that? Burrow underwent an emergency appendectomy that forced him to miss almost all of training camp. And the year before that? Burrow spent the 2021 preseason recovering from a torn ACL.
He’s entering his fifth training camp and has yet to have a preseason that’s ended without a hiccup. When asked if he’s putting added pressure on himself to try and do everything he can to get through training camp fully healthy, Burrow offered an honest response.
“Whenever the injuries start to stack up your football mortality kind of comes into the back of your mind,” Burrow said. “So, that’s definitely something I’ve thought about and something I have had to fight through. That is every injury that happens. They stack and you continue to think about how you can get better from those and how you can come back an improved player when maybe you aren’t getting the reps you had because of your injuries. It’s always a challenge, it always is. But I’m built for it.”
How Joe Burrow is preparing for the NFL season
Burrow admitted he’s not invincible. He also accepted responsibility for trying to push through injuries when he should have sat out. When asked specifically how he wished he could have handled his calf injury last year different, Burrow said that specific injury was the catalyst for his change in mindset.
On the second day of training camp last year, Burrow practiced with a compression sleeve on his calf. Right before the end of practice, Burrow was carted off the field after straining that same calf on a non-contact drill.
He tried to rush his way back on the field to play before Week 1 with limited practice before ultimately re-tweaking his calf in Week 2 when the Bengals hosted the Baltimore Ravens. He didn’t look like the same quarterback you’ve seen until mid-October. Right as the Bengals, and Burrow, were catching their stride to make a playoff push, Burrow’s wrist injury occurred and his season was over before it ever really started.
This is arguably the most important offseason of Burrow’s career and he’s approaching it as so. The Bengals made a gigantic investment in Burrow when they signed him to a five-year extension worth $275 million. He understands he needs to be healthy for his team to try and make another Super Bowl run.
“That’s what this offseason has been about for me… it’s not pushing through some things that I have pushed through in the past,” Burrow said. “I’ve always prided myself on my mental toughness to be able to push through pain and push through those injuries. That has kind of been my growth this offseason is taking a step back and understanding my value to the organization and the team.”
Joe Burrow recovering from wrist injury
Burrow’s recovery from his wrist injury is still an ongoing process the team is managing. Head coach Zac Taylor admitted he gives Burrow a scheduled off day once a week to ensure he doesn’t try to push too hard in June.
He refrained from giving any detail about where he’s at from a comfort standpoint at this point in time. However, he did say he will be ready to go come training camp and if he had to make an accurate throw in a tight window right now, he could.
After Thursday’s practice, the Bengals break for six weeks of summer before reporting for training camp at the end of July. Burrow said he has his plan in place for how he’ll approach the next month. That includes not working too hard this time around.
“I’m going to definitely not quite grind as much for this next month and a half,” Burrow said. “My offseason has been about 10 weeks longer than everybody else’s. So, I’ve had 10 weeks of work everybody else hasn’t. So, I feel really good about where I am going to be at come training camp.”
Joe Burrow's offseason plans
When asked what Burrow plans to do with this free time when he’s not training, Cincinnati’s star quarterback said he plans to travel and is learning how to play the piano through YouTube videos.
Burrow also said he hopes to get together with wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins at some point to throw this offseason. Expectations will be high for the Bengals for this season after missing the playoffs last year and that doesn’t scare Burrow, it excites him.
“I have this whole next month laid out,” Burrow said. “I have how I want to handle my rest days, the weeks I'm going to grind, so we have that all laid out and I'm excited about it.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Joe Burrow on mental toll of injuries in NFL
