With Joe Burrow Injured, What to Know About Bengals Backup QBs

Joe Burrow exited Bengals practice earlier this week with a non-contact injury that turned out to be a calf strain.

It didn’t look great, but a calf strain is much better than the alternative, like an Achilles tear. 

With Burrow likely out for most, if not all, of the preseason, here’s how Cincinnati’s quarterback situation stands.

Burrow’s two primary backups are journeymen Trevor Siemian and Jake Browning.

Siemian is the far more experienced quarterback of the two, having played in 35 career games over his six NFL seasons. Siemian started 14 games with the Broncos in 2016 and 10 more for Denver in ’17. Since his stint in Denver, Siemian has served as a backup with the Jets, Saints and Bears. He’s made six starts over the last three seasons in relief of injured quarterbacks.

Siemian has completed 58.9% of his passes for 7,027 yards and 42 touchdowns to 28 interceptions. He has proven to be a below-average starter in the opportunities he’s gotten, but is certainly a quality backup and is good enough to keep things afloat for a team with playmakers and a good defense to bail him out.

As for Browning, he went undrafted in 2019 after a solid college career at the University of Washington. He spent ’19 to ’21 on the Vikings’ practice squad, and has spent the last few seasons bouncing between the practice squad and active roster of the Bengals.

Browning has not tallied any NFL snaps in the regular season, but completed 64.6% of his passes at Washington for 12,296 yards and 94 touchdowns. He finished sixth in the Heisman Trophy vote in 2016 as a sophomore for the Huskies, when he threw 43 touchdowns to nine interceptions en route to being named the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year.

Neither quarterback is Burrow, but short of trade or free agency options, the Bengals will proceed with these two signal callers while their franchise quarterback gets healthy. A trade would likely signal a longer stint on the shelf for Burrow, while proceeding with these two veterans would mean that the Bengals are either comfortable with Siemian leading the team without Burrow healthy, or that Burrow simply will return to the fold sooner rather than later.