Jermaine Burton proved he belongs on field with explosive play vs. Chiefs

Bengals WR Jermaine Burton made his case for more playing time.

So much for Cincinnati Bengals rookie Jermaine Burton not having an impact as a rookie.

Burton, facing scrutiny over reports that he had a rough summer, broke onto the field during Sunday’s loss to the Kansas City Chiefs and immediately put up a huge highlight.

The play was a simple deep bomb from Joe Burrow that Burton easily reeled in after beating the defense deep, good for 47 yards.

And even though he didn’t have a major bit of work on the official snap counts, Burton’s usage sure was unexpected after he worked with the fourth team and returned kicks during the preseason — while a report said he might face a redshirt year over playbook issues.

The highlight is nice, of course:

But this goes far beyond a highlight. Tee Higgins is out and Trenton Irwin was struggling with his heavy dose of snaps. Even Andrei Iosvias, for as impressive as his two touchdowns were, had a key drop.

If nothing else, Sunday was proof that Burton is going to be hard to keep off the field. Limited route tree and/or playbook mastery or not, his ability to stretch the field clearly has a big value.

So much so, it’s going to be hard for the team to justify keeping him off the field at a decent snap count even when Higgins comes back.

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