How Soon Will Joe Burrow Be Back With the Bengals After Having Surgery Monday?

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow underwent successful surgery Monday on the right wrist injury he suffered Nov. 16 at Baltimore, knocking him out for the rest of the season.

During his weekly Monday news conference, Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said the expectation is for Burrow to make a full recovery, although he wanted to get official word from the doctors before talking about any sort of timeline for the quarterback to resume throwing.

That word came later in the afternoon, with the Bengals releasing a statement about Burrow’s surgery.

“Joe Burrow underwent successful surgery on his wrist today. The procedure went as planned and he is expected to make a complete recovery. Joe will return to Cincinnati this week to be with the team and begin the recovery and rehab process.”

How Soon Will Joe Burrow Be Back Around the Cincinnati Bengals?

In terms of a more immediate timeline, Taylor said he expects Burrow to be back in the building this week, sitting in meetings and doing his part to help put backup Jake Browning in the best position to lead the Bengals out of a three-game losing streak.

“One thing he wanted was to continue to be around, be at the games, so we’ll see how he comes out of this,” Taylor said. “Maybe there’s some soreness there, and he wants some time to himself, but he and I had a good conversation last week, and he wanted to be very involved going forward.”

That was evident last week when Burrow was going through stretching exercises with his teammates prior to practice, even though he would not be participating in any fashion.

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And Burrow was on the sideline Sunday during the 16-10 loss to Pittsburgh, going over the still images of the defense with Browning between series.

Jake Browning's NFL starting debut was laced with good and bad for the #Bengals, but he wouldn't blame his inexperience for his decision-making on the game-changing play.

"That's a cop out."https://t.co/f5861CGnGR

— Jay Morrison (@ByJayMorrison) November 27, 2023

Offensive coordinator Brian Callahan said he couldn’t speak to how beneficial Burrow’s feedback was for Browning because he wasn’t involved in those conversations on the bench from his perch in the coaches’ box. But Callahan did say he can appreciate how trying Sunday was for Burrow and how much he appreciated him being available despite that.

“I just know that it’s a really difficult thing to deal with mentally when you lose your season,” he said.

“The strange thing for him is it’s not like he went and had surgery and was gone for a month and came back. He’s still dealing with his season ending 10 days ago. That’s a really difficult thing to wrap your mind around. And then to be out at the game the next week watching somebody else run the offense, that’s a hard thing.”

“So I give him a little bit of grace for how difficult that probably is for him,” Callahan continued. “But he was there. He was helpful. How much he helped Jake, you’ll have to ask him. What information he gave or didn’t give, I couldn’t tell you. But I know he wants to be around and available. He was great all week in the meeting room. Just being there for the conversation points and what he sees and how he sees it is always helpful to have.”

The Bengals went 2-4 in the six games Burrow missed in 2020 due to the ACL injury, with Brandon Allen and Ryan Finley each winning a game against Houston and Pittsburgh, respectively, while Burrow was rehabbing in California.

If Browning can win one of the six remaining games, he will be the fourth starting quarterback to win a game in the Taylor era and just the seventh to do so since 2011.

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