The Cincinnati Bengals are once again struggling to compete. After missing the playoffs in 2024 due to an awful defensive performance throughout the year, the situation has not improved, even though the team changed from Lou Anarumo to Al Golden as their defensive coordinator.
Another point that relates to their struggles in the absence of superstar quarterback Joe Burrow, who suffered a turf toe injury and has missed most of the season so far. The offense still has put up a fight, but there’s no denying that Burrow is a major upgrade over Joe Flacco and Jake Browning.
As a silver lining for another disappointing year, Bengals fans could see their quarterback returning soon, with Dan Orlovsky making a major prediction.
Dan Orlovsky Predicts Joe Burrow To Start For The Cincinnati Bengals in Week 12
On Wednesday, the first injury report for the Week 12 game between the Bengals and the New England Patriots was released. And a major surprise appeared, with Cincinnati listing Joe Burrow as a full participant in practice.
This led Dan Orlovsky to predict that the quarterback will start. According to Orlovsky, “there’s no way he’s practicing fully today [Wednesday] if he’s not gonna start on Sunday.”
“[Joe Burrow] is gonna start. I mean there’s no way he’s practicing fully today if he’s not gonna start on Sunday.”@danorlovsky7 is confident Joe Burrow will be under center for the Bengals during Week 12 🔥 pic.twitter.com/4QeNVKJ98O
— ESPN (@espn) November 19, 2025
This is a dramatic improvement from the initial timeline regarding Burrow’s recovery. He was expected to be out for around three months when he suffered the injury. He left the contest against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 2Â and has not played ever since.
The Bengals initially had Jake Browning as his replacement. Browning led a comeback victory against the Jaguars, and there was hope that he would keep Cincinnati in the playoff race. He had a 4-3 record in seven starts for the franchise in 2023 as a backup, when Burrow suffered a hand injury that made him miss the rest of the season.
But the results were bad, and Browning struggled badly. As such, the Bengals made a trade with the Cleveland Browns to acquire Joe Flacco, who was benched for rookie Dillon Gabriel a few weeks before. Flacco has 14 touchdowns and nine interceptions, and is ranked 29th on PFSN’s QB Impact metric.
Sitting at 3-7, Burrow’s return has no reason to be rushed, with the Bengals all but eliminated from playoff contention. The defense is not convincing, but at least the return of the starting quarterback could spark hopes for the fans.