After suffering a pinkie injury against the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 13 , Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow won't throw in practice on Wednesday.
Burrow says his pinkie is feeling better, but he's dealing with a little bit of swelling. When the injury first took place, Burrow tried both tape and a glove to compensate for the injury and chose to go with neither option. This week, he said he'll try the glove out again during practice to see if he'll want to play on Sunday with it.
"I'm going to try some things this week in practice to see what works best," Burrow said. "But we'll see. I don't really have all the answers yet."
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Despite suffering the injury, Burrow's accuracy wasn't affected. He finished the game throwing for 300 yards and completing 60% of his passes. Burrow says the only time his pinkie hurts when playing is when it gets hit. Under center, the ball doesn't hit his pinkie. Burrow was sacked a season-high six times against the Chargers.
"I would say anytime you have a finger injury on your throwing hand it's gonna take some tweaking to see how you're gonna be able to throw the ball with a finger injury but I think it didn't hamper me too much on Sunday," Burrow said. "And I think it's going to keep getting better throughout the week."
Although Burrow says he doesn't envision this injury keeping him out for any games, the Bengals will be smart with their franchise quarterback. Burrow knows the offense well enough at this point if he is unable to practice this week, he would be able to play in Cincinnati's upcoming game against the Chargers.
Bengals head coach Zac Taylor is optimistic Burrow will be able to practice in some capacity this week and isn't interfering in his quarterback's process to find out if he wants to wear a glove or not while throwing. It will be Burrow's decision.
"He’s certainly far enough along in the season with our scheme where we’re not adding just entirely new concepts each week so he’s got the physical and mental reps of doing it," Taylor said. "It’s a little bit of an unknown until he gets out there and does it but he’s a tough guy and played through it and so we’re optimistic that he’ll get back to practice."
The Bengals need Burrow to be at his best against the 49ers and if it requires him to not take a snap in practice all week, they'll give him as much time to get his pinkie in a better place. Sunday's game between San Francisco (6-6) and Cincinnati has all of the makings to be a physical one. The 49ers are known for their ground and pound style of offense run by Kyle Shanahan and their defensive front likes to get after quarterbacks, starting with defensive end Nick Bosa.
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After falling to the Chargers at home, the Bengals put themselves right in the mix of the AFC playoff picture. Prior the Week 13 loss, Cincinnati was the No. 5 seed in the playoff picture. One loss dropped them to the No. 7 seed, where the sit currently. With five games to play sitting at 7-5, the Bengals needs to take care of business against the 49ers in order to control their own destiny.
"We have everything ahead of us still," Burrow said. "So we still got a great opportunity to do what we want to do. We just got to keep getting better and keep not making the same mistake twice and going out there and execute."
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