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By Joe Kozlowski
Sports Team Lead
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In less than 24 hours, things went from bad to worse for Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals.
During Thursday Night Football, the signal-caller left the game with an apparent wrist injury. Cincy lost the game 34-20, and head coach Zac Taylor said that Burrow had sprained his wrist. But on Friday, he announced that the QB was done for the season.
"I was just going to tape it up and give it a shot," Burrow said of his injury. "I just couldn't."
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Understandably, Burrow's absence is a major blow to the Bengals. The club was already facing a tough climb out of the AFC North cellar and a brutal upcoming schedule. Cincy is slated to face Pittsburgh twice, plus Jacksonville, Indianapolis, Minnesota, Kansas City, and Cleveland before the year is out. According to Tankathon, that's the toughest remaining slate in the entire league.
Even with Burrow, coming through that stretch unscathed would be a challenge. Without their star power under center, the Bengals seem, despite their coach's sentiments, done for.
Upon first blush, that's an obvious negative, especially for a team with genuine Super Bowl aspirations. Winning is, at its most basic, fun. And for those involved in the team, it's a source of livelihood. Even in mitigating circumstances, no one wants to end up with too many metaphorical black marks on their resume. Those don't tend to go away.
But, if you can look past the immediate pain, there is a bigger picture.
The Bengals are a good team. They have plenty of talent within the organization and some cap space, although that will shrink as Burrow's salary rises and players like Ja'Marr Chase need new contracts. This season, if all goes according to plan, should be a blip rather than the beginning of the end.
And how can the club keep building for the future? With draft picks. As teams like the Kansas City Chiefs have shown, having talented players on affordable rookie contracts is a key way to keep a window open.
Returning to the schedule, let's revisit the Bengals' upcoming games. With seven contests left, there's a genuine chance that Cincy could limp to the finish line. Traveling to Jacksonville and Kansas City is a difficult task for any team. The Steelers haven't been perfect this year, but you are what your record says you are. Minnesota shouldn't be underestimated, especially if Justin Jefferson is back. And do you really want to face the Browns in Week 18, especially if they need a big win over a divisional rival to clinch a playoff berth?
That leaves Indy as the one outstanding (and comparatively unintimidating) opponent. And that game isn't a gimme.
Predicting NFL results is something of a fool's errand, but let's say the Bengals go 1-6 down the stretch. Maybe some bounces go their way and there's another win along that way. That leaves them with, at best, a 7-10 record.
That won't be good enough to secure the first-overall pick, but it would see Cincy move higher in the draft order. They will be, after all, playing a tough schedule without their star quarterback; teams currently above them in the draft order, like the Falcons, Buccaneers and Patriots, will be playing easier slates. In a way, the Bengals will be getting the benefits of tanking without 1) intentionally giving up or 2) having an actively bad roster.
To be clear, losing isn't fun, but the NFL requires that you make the best out of a bad situation. And, in this case, the Bengals were staring down the barrel of potentially missing the playoffs, even with a healthy Burrow. If that was going to happen, they might as well earn the best draft pick possible.
Is this the perfect solution? Of course not, but a season-ending injury for the franchise player requires getting a bit creative when it comes to sources of optimism.
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