Joe Burrow Makes Notable Admission About Zac Taylor Before Bengals Showdown vs Ravens

CINCINNATI — Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow will play on Thursday night against the Ravens, just 69 days after undergoing surgery on his left big toe. The 28-year-old suffered a grade 3 turf toe injury.

He was expected to be out until mid-December. Some thought he'd miss the entire season.

Burrow never felt that way.

"As soon as it happened, I was pushing to do everything that we could to try and get back on the field," Burrow said on Tuesday. "I’m a football player. I get paid a lot money to go and play a game with my friends and we work really hard. It’s intense and there’s jobs on the line, but at the end of the day, it’s a game and I’ve worked hard to put myself in this position and get as healthy as I can be to go out and play with these guys and that’s something I wanted to do."

Not only did Burrow beat his return timeline by multiple weeks. He could've returned even sooner.

Burrow made it clear he felt ready to play and would've played against the Patriots if head coach Zac Taylor gave him the green light.

"Correct, I would've," Burrow said. "At the end of the day it was head coach's call."

The Bengals lost to New England 26-20, falling to 3-8 on the season and 1-8 without Burrow.

He practiced in full on Wednesday and Thursday last week, but Taylor opted to keep Burrow on the sideline.

"A lot of things," Burrow said when asked what went into the decision. "At the end of the day, it was Zac’s decision. We went into that week, I had a good workout early in the week. I was feeling good. Wednesday and Thursday practice happened, I took a lot of reps. My body was pretty sore. Not necessarily my toe. My toe feels great. The rest of my body being back out there for so long. I was confident I could get that right to play on Sunday. Zac ended up thinking it was better to wait the extra four days. I think that was a good decision. "

Burrow didn't throw Taylor under the bus or say he should've played. He called it a "good" decision. It's noteworthy that he felt ready mentally and believed he would've been ready physically for Sunday's game.

Burrow was sore on Friday after back-to-back full practices—his first full sessions since surgery.

The star quarterback believes last week has him ready for a Thanksgiving showdown in Baltimore.

"It’s certainly a different mental space that you have to be in throughout the week to prepare the way you need to go out and play great. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to get two full weeks of practice before I went out there and performed," Burrow said. "We were going to move up that timeline and obviously didn’t end up playing last week. But preparing that whole week like I was going to play was beneficial. Putting yourself in that mental state to get back into the swing of things, it’s an intense place to be at times. So I’m glad I had that week to feel that before Thursday."

At 3-8, the Bengals need to win out to have a realistic chance of making the playoffs. Would they be 4-7 if Burrow returned against the Patriots?

We'll never know. But it's certainly a big "what if?" that will be asked if the Bengals do go on a run over the next six weeks.

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