Bengals head coach Zac Taylor provides update on Joe Burrow's wrist injury
ORLANDO, Fla. — With the NFL’s voluntary offseason program just around the corner, Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor provided an update on the health of franchise quarterback Joe Burrow.
Burrow, 27, underwent season-ending wrist surgery to repair the scapholunate ligament in his right wrist at the end of November. This ligament is in the middle of the wrist between the scaphoid and lunate bones. It’s an important wrist-stabilizing ligament in his throwing hand.
“Everything is positive… everything is encouraging,” Taylor said of Burrow’s recovery at the annual AFC coaches breakfast. “He’s tracking well for the offseason program. We’ll continue to give him space and his rehab work, but everything has been going exactly how we hoped it would go.”
When will Joe Burrow start throwing again?
Taylor hesitated to put a timeline of when Burrow will begin throwing again but did suggest at some point if things continue to progress in the right direction, he will take the field with his teammates in some capacity. The Bengals begin their offseason program on April 17 with organized team activities that include 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 drills scheduled to start in May.
Sources originally told The Enquirer the expected recovery time for this specific injury ranges from four to six months. Burrow suffered the injury on Nov. 16 in the Bengals’ 34-20 loss to the Baltimore Ravens and then underwent surgery on Nov. 27. The procedure was done in Pennsylvania by world renowned surgeon Dr. Thomas Graham.
“I’ll wait on that one but again I think we’ve always targeted this offseason program as a good time for him to get back out there and get with the guys and so we’ll go from there,” Taylor said. “Everything has been really positive.”
Joe Burrow injury history, contract situation
This is the second major surgery Burrow’s underwent in his young career thus far. Burrow tore his ACL in his rookie season and missed the final few months of the 2020 season.
When Burrow has been on the field, the results speak for themselves. When healthy, Burrow has led the Bengals to two AFC championship games and an appearance in Super Bowl 56.
Prior to the start of an injury riddled season that began with a calf strain in training camp, the Bengals gave Burrow a five-year extension worth $275 million making him the highest paid quarterback on an annual basis ($55 million) in the NFL. Burrow and the Bengals agreed on a deal that keeps him as Cincinnati’s franchise quarterback through 2029.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: How is Joe Burrow's wrist? Here's what coach Zac Taylor said Monday
