Cincinnati Bengals star quarterback Joe Burrow returned to the practice field this week and on Tuesday threw in front of media for the first time since injuring his right wrist in Baltimore last November.
He’s been throwing for more than a month and at the tail end of the expected six-month recovery process, but admitted he expects this to take time to get all the way back up to where he wants to be by training camp in late July.
His new presence at practice was the major win, though. He threw deep, short, off-platform and about every which way you’d like to see at this point. He’s fully cleared for everything except contact, which is supposed to come in about a month.
This doesn’t put the injury behind him. Every day is still wait and see.
“I felt good the last two days,” Burrow said. “I don’t ever really know how it’s gonna feel until I wake up the next morning, but I was encouraged by the last couple days for sure.”
Physically, Burrow is very encouraged, but also acknowledged this hasn’t been an easy path to this point. The biggest challenge, he said, was “the uncertainty,” and admitting they were “kind of flying blind” since no major quarterbacks have been through this type of injury before. He found himself consulting with linebackers and defensive linemen.
“Whenever you have an injury to your throwing side, you’re never quite sure how it’s gonna turn out at the end, but I’m in a good spot,” he said. “I’m happy with where I’m at.”
Any day where Burrow is moving and throwing, generally looking like his normal self is a great day for the Bengals organization. There’s a long way to maneuver toward his first normal camp and preseason in his NFL career, but he’s in as good of a spot today as could be expected.
“The wrist has good days and bad days, just like the knee did. We’re still pretty early, we’ve still got a ways until the season, so we’re going to make sure we give it the breaks that it needs. We’re going to be smart about it, but on the days that I’m feeling good we’re going to go.”