Joe Burrow.
The Los Angeles Rams and head coach Sean McVay are naturally preparing for their “Monday Night Football” meeting with the Cincinnati Bengals as if young standout QB Joe Burrow is playing. And Bengals head coach Zac Taylor entered the weekend revealing very little otherwise.
But now there is buzz that has Bengals teammates not only urging Burrow to sit in order to rest his injured calf, but also buzz that has those same teammates whispering to the media that they suspect the QB won’t play. And more …
There is even some speculation that the Bengals might end up moving the QB to the IR list.
The Rams are 1-1 after two divisional games, and of course they, like every team, are dealing with injuries.
Cincinnati, though, is reeling and is yet to look right. Quarterback Burrow is dealing with a calf strain that he re-aggravated in the early going of this season … a continuation of a problem for him at training camp.
The Bengals – in part as a result – are 0-2 and yet to look like a team led by one of the league’s best passers.
If he were to play, he would undoubtedly be hampered by the injury … thus allowing a young Rams defense to play with a little more confidence. For sure, in this “Super Bowl rematch” of sorts, the lethally precise version of Burrow won’t be trotting out there on Monday night. So it figures to be backup quarterback Jake Browning’s job for Monday … and maybe beyond.
As the Sunday games begin, a major question continues to hover over one of the two Monday night games.
Will Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow play against the Rams?
Jay Glazer of Fox Sports, acknowledging that it’s a “serious” calf injury for Burrow, reports that Burrow took reps on Saturday with the scout team, and that he took first-team reps in a Sunday walk-through.
Glazer says the Bengals will take it all the way to game time before making a decision, and that Burrow is feeling much better than he did two days ago.
Jake Browning will play if Burrow can’t. This week, they added both Reid Sinnett and A.J. McCarron to the practice squad, giving them four quarterbacks on the full roster.