Bengals Fans Collectively Rejoice As Their Franchise Quarterback Returns.
by Chris Ball
The Cincinnati Bengals will only go as far as Joe Burrow will take them, it’s an immutable fact, the same as the sky being blue and water being wet. This was why the entire city was likely cheering at home to see their franchise quarterback return from a torn scapholunate ligament on his throwing hand on November 16 of last year against the Ravens, which required surgery.
Before that, Burrow had been hampered by a calf injury that severely impaired his movement and his ability to plant and throw the football. But when he got healthy he won four of his last five starts before eventually suffering his season ending hand injury against Baltimore. He finished the 2023 season with 15 touchdowns, six interceptions and a 66.8 completion percentage across the 10 games that he played in. During those contests where he was healthy, such as against San Francisco, Buffalo, and Houston he threw for a combined 978 yards, 7 touchdowns and just two interceptions.
After the injury, though Jake Browning went on a heroic run, and deserves a significant amount of credit for his leadership and tenacity, the Bengals ultimately fell short of making the 2023 playoffs by a very narrow margin. However, having a backup like Browning on the roster is absolutely critical to the team’s ability to contend, given the nature of the league and the ferocity that modern defenses can unleash.
The 2024 Bengals added significant pieces at positions of real need. This included the signing of Trent Brown and bringing in Zack Moss at running back, ending the Joe Mixon era in Cincinnati. They also signed Mike Gesicki, a solid pass-catching tight end that hopefully plastered over a glaring hole at the position that Bengals’ fans have been clamoring to be addressed for months.
The team has stood tough and dealt with trade requests from disgruntled but important plyers Tee Higgins and Trey Hendrickson, doing all they can to ensure that both will be on the roster next year to help this team, even if it is for only one more year. Their draft strategy was a successful one, taking Amarius Mims to solidify the future at right tackle, Kris Jenkins to fill gaps at the interior defensive line, and Jermaine Burton to add the potential of an explosive playmaker at receiver given the departure of Tyler Boyd (and likely Higgins after next year).
The front office has been busy ensuring that when Joe Burrow is completely healthy, he has the potential for a very solid team around him in terms of protection and offensive firepower. Losing a franchise quarterback as young as Burrow to two season-ending injuries has made Bengals fans understandably wary of getting their hopes too high, but its easy to forget all the pain and heartbreak seeing him take the field again and sling the pigskin, even if it is just an offseason workout.
Bengals fans certainly hope that 2024 is a positive step forward for a team that was in the Super Bowl just two short years ago. Joe Burrow’s hand injury honestly appears, from the film, to be a non-issue, but it is easy to expect his health to be a major question each week this upcoming season. Orlando Brown, Jr., Trent Brown, as titanic men, can certainly address those concerns, along with their fellow linemen, but there is no question that the Bengals’ most valuable commodity (perhaps ever) cannot be allowed to be roughed up as much as he has been in his young career.
But for now, it’s enough to just sit back, watch Number 9 take the field in the orange and black, and imagine how glorious it will be to take it all in come that first game in the fall.
Christopher Ball is a longtime Loveland resident and an attorney. He graduated from Loveland High School in 2003 and was a member of the football team before going on to become a coach’s assistant at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. He has been following and rooting for the Reds and Bengals since the early 1990s and has been through the many ups and downs that fandom has wrought over the years.
