“Joe’s back in the building,” Taylor said Monday. “He’s in good shape. Expect no limitations from him but we’ll take it day-to-day as he’s dealing with this throat deal.”
Safety Jessie Bates also appears like he will be fine to play Sunday. Taylor said he just “got rattled up on that last play of the game, so he’ll be good to go.” Bates went down after making a tackle on Randall Cobb on a third-down pass just before the two-minute warning in overtime and Mason Crosby’s game-winning field goal.
Meanwhile, the Bengals placed linebacker Jordan Evans on injured reserve with a left knee injury suffered late in the game Sunday, and right guard Jackson Carman and running back Samaje Perine went on the COVID-19 list Monday. Taylor said if Carman isn’t available Sunday, rookie D’Ante Smith would play right guard, but if Carman and Perine test negative twice within 24 hours, they could still return.
As for Burrow, Taylor isn’t sure when the throat issue surfaced. Burrow didn’t say anything during the game and he didn’t know his quarterback was going to the hospital as a precaution until after Taylor completed his postgame press conference.
“It’s just all precautionary,” Taylor said Monday. “I think he was just having a little difficulty talking. But as the night went on, he was better. As he woke up this morning, he came right in the facility and was ready to go. I’ve tried to pinpoint when it happened. There’s a couple of times when you could say maybe he got hit in the neck. There were two or three plays. He doesn’t have a recollection on which one it happened on.”
Zac Taylor speaks with the media. https://t.co/pm9kddThe6
— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) October 11, 2021
Burrow wasn’t available for interviews after the game and isn’t scheduled to speak to media until Wednesday for his usual weekly press conference.
The second-year quarterback was sacked three times and hit on multiple other occasions, including one play that did cause him to go down for a few minutes after getting hit by Darnell Savage at the end of a scramble in the second quarter. He was tended to by the trainers and then popped up and jogged off on his own, as the Bengals’ punt team went on the field.
Burrow went straight to the medical tent, but emerged moments later and went straight to the bench to begin preparing for the next possession, which he was cleared to play. It’s still unclear if that is the play where he injured his throat.
Wide receiver Tyler Boyd said Monday he also wasn’t aware of the issue.
“I know he took a pretty good hit,” Boyd said. “I was right there. I know he kind of felt that, but I didn’t know for sure what actually was wrong. I thought he got the wind knocked out of him. It was just a hard hit, but he came right back in. Then people were saying he was injured. I didn’t know that he was injured at all, at no point, but I mean that’s out of my hands.”
Ja’Marr Chase said Sunday during his postgame press conference that he told Burrow he needs to start sliding on plays like that.
“I told him don’t scare me like that again,” Chase said, before completing his thought with a laugh. “… He knows how to slide; he’s just hard-headed.”
Boyd said he admires Burrow’s desire to fight for every yard, but at the same time, he also wants to see the team’s franchise quarterback stay healthy.
“It’s hard to say that when you’ve got a guy on the team that’s willing to do anything he’s got to, to get the job done, so I mean, it’s kind of gray area, but at the end of the day, we want him protected,” Boyd said. “We don’t want him banged up at all. We hate to see it, but he’s a dog. And I see it and we all know, but it’s kind of up in the air, there’s gray area. I mean for me to say I wouldn’t want it, but at the time when it’s third-and 2 or third-and-1 and he got to run with his legs and he did it, we need it, so it’s kind of back and forth.”
Taylor said Burrow’s pocket presence is something that comes natural to him, and he brings an awareness and vision on the field that has helped him as a young quarterback.
The part he’s still learning is when to scramble, when to slide, when to get out of bounds and when to just get rid of the ball.
“That’s probably one (discussion) of me telling him, ‘Hey, let’s protect ourselves,’ on that big shot he took before the half,” Taylor said. “And he agrees with that. He’s got an aggressive mentality, he wants to help the team get first downs but at the same time, that’s part of protecting our football team is we need him out there playing and not exposing himself to some unnecessary hits.”
SUNDAY’S GAME
Bengals at Lions, 1 p.m., Fox, 700, 1530, 102.7, 104.7
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