Bengals QB Joe Burrow describes season-ending wrist injury, emphasizes he wasn't hurt before TNF

Joe Burrow is out for the season as the NFL loses another marquee name to injury. But the Bengals quarterback wanted to clear up a misconception.

The wrist injury that ended his season was a new one, Burrow said. He wants folks to disregard the conspiracy theories that have prompted the NFL to investigate whether the Bengals hid an injury headed into the Ravens game.

The brace some Twitter sleuths focused in on the night before the game was a compression sleeve he wore on the plane to Baltimore. After all, high altitudes can make all your joints ache.

“This is a completely different thing,” Burrow said Friday. “It’s not uncommon for guys to wear compression sleeves on a plane because when you go up to that altitude things can swell up.”

“This is a completely new injury,” he added.

But it did place the Bengals in a precarious situation. If you’re not obsessed with X (formerly Twitter), here’s what happened. The Cincinnati social media team posted a video clip of the Bengals arriving in Baltimore for what was anticipated as a huge AFC North division battle. In the video, Burrow was standing towards the back. However, some of the folks who viewed the video spotted what appeared to be a brace on Burrow’s right wrist. Yet the Bengals never listed him on their injury report. Rather than explain anything, the Bengals deleted the video.

Burrow said he thinks he hurt his wrist, which will require surgery to heal, when Ravens pass rusher Jadeveon Clowney hit him and knocked the quarterback to the turf. He managed to throw a touchdown pass to Joe Mixon.

“That’s the best guess. You just see how he landed,” said Bengals coach Zac Taylor. “Clowney kind of lands on top of him and the way he caught his wrist. For him to throw the way he did before that and then the next play really not be able to grab the ball. That seems to make the most sense.”

But that it’s for a disappointing season for Burrow. He missed most of training camp after straining a calf muscle. Then it took him awhile to steady his game.

“It’s tough,” Burrow told reporters to describe his second, season-ending injury. He also missed most of his rookie year because of a knee injury.

“You work so hard for seasons and moments like these, so whenever you get hurt and it ends it early, it’s tough to handle. But that’s part of the game, been through it before. Gotta grind it out.”

The Bengals fell to 5-5. Jake Browning, the former Washington Huskie star, will start at quarterback. Whatever happens, we know that Burrow won’t battle with Patrick Mahomes in the AFC championship game. Instead, Burrow joins the likes of Aaron Rodgers, Kirk Cousins and Deshaun Watson as quarterbacks on IR for the season.