Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow won’t play against the Cleveland Browns in the Week 18 season finale.
No great shock there — the Bengals wrapped up the AFC North and a playoff berth with last weekend’s win over the Kansas City Chiefs.
While the Bengals could play for better playoff seeding, the Browns won’t start quarterback Baker Mayfield.
More importantly, Burrow limped off the field favoring his knee late in the win against the Chiefs and the Bengals were mum about any injury right after the game.
On the subject of that knee, Burrow told reporters he’d be good to go if the team needed him against the Browns, per ESPN’s Ben Baby:
Burrow said he his knee is sore but he's healthy enough to play if he needed to.
— Ben Baby (@Ben_Baby) January 5, 2022
He added this, per Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic: “Any time you can get a little break at this point in the season … bodies are starting to wear down a little bit. Rest me this week so I can get back to full strength running around the way I need to be the first round of the playoffs.”
Based on this, the Bengals probably won’t play many starters in the season finale. The team had to send several notable starters to the reserve/COVID-19 list yesterday and Joe Mixon just tested positive.
