Joe Burrow is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL today. It’s hard to imagine the game without him these days.
But that was something he was imagining himself last season after racking up so many injuries during the 2023 NFL season.
Burrow has had multiple injuries in his five seasons in the NFL. Still, after tearing ligaments in his right wrist in Week 10 last season, Burrow said he was legitimately thought about how much longer he could play football, according to Eric Edholm of NFL.com.
“Whenever the injuries start to stack up, your football mortality kind of comes into the back of your mind,” Burrow told reporters in the offseason. “So that’s definitely something I’ve thought about and something I have had to fight through.”
Considering his injury history, it’s hard to blame Burrow for thinking that way.
So far in his career, he’s had:
- A torn ACL during his rookie season in 2020
- A dislocated pinky finger in 2021
- An MCL sprain in 2022 in the waning moments of the Super Bowl
- A right calf strain in 2023 that kept him out early in the season
- A ruptured scapholunate ligament injury in his wrist in 2023 that kept him out for the season late
SEE MORE: Joe Burrow’s complete injury history is listed out here.
Put all that together and, yeah, it’s easy to see why someone would question whether they’d want to continue playing football.
But it’s a good thing Burrow never stopped. He’s playing the best ball of his career today despite the Bengals being quite the middling team this season.
If this continues and he can stay healthy, maybe Cincinnati can find itself in a space where it can compete for a playoff spot.