Why Joe Burrow refuses to sit, regardless of injury concerns

The Cincinnati Bengals’ 2025 season has been completely derailed by a costly injury to quarterback Joe Burrow, who has now suffered significant injuries in four of his six NFL seasons.

This year Burrow picked up a left toe injury in Week 2 and has not featured since, leaving the Bengals to field veteran QB Joe Flacco in his place. With six games remaining Burrow may finally be ready to return to the field when the Bengals take on the the Baltimore Ravens on Thanksgiving. But is it too late?

ESPN Analytics estimates that the Bengals have a 1% chance of making the playoffs from this point. For the injury-prone Burrow, playing six potentially meaningless games could seem like an unnecessary risk but he is unwilling to sit out the remainder.

“I’m not ever going to go to somebody and say, ‘Yeah, I’m healthy, but I don’t think I should go out there and play,’” Burrow told reporters on Tuesday. “That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. I’m not going to live my life and play this game scared of something happening.”

“Yeah, I’ve had injuries,” Burrow continued. “There’s not a lot I can do about that. I worked really hard to have that not happen.

“But what I can do is when it does happen, I can control how I’m attacking my rehab and attacking practice and doing everything in my power to get back as quickly as possible. And that’s what I did.”

Assuming that Cincinnati does not embark on a historic run down the stretch, the team is set to miss the playoffs for a third consecutive season. That follows back-to-back AFC North championships and a Super Bowl appearance in 2021. The pressure on coach Zac Taylor will undoubtedly rise but he will argue that the absence of his quarterback has been the defining factor this year.

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