Now that the proverbial dust has settled on the calf strain suffered by Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, there’s a new angle worth considering.
It’s not as bad as last year.
A year ago, Burrow suffered a burst appendix and was hospitalized, with noteworthy weight loss compounding the issue from a football standpoint.
This year, it’s merely a calf strain. A tricky injury and almost impossible to put an official timetable on, but it’s better than the comparison to last year — and some in the organization agree.
“It sucks, I feel for him,” offensive coordinator Brian Callahan said, according to Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic. “But this is not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things. Every situation is unique, and this is unique in its own right. We just won’t have him for a period of time here in practice. I was more concerned about him coming off the appendix last year than I would be off of this just because of the physical nature.”
With the appendix and weight loss, there were football-specific concerns such as how much force Burrow could get behind throws, how his body would respond to taking a hit, etc.
The calf strain has some similar hurdles, but the comparison comes with a dose of sheer relief that this non-contact injury wasn’t something worse, like an Achilles tendon.
This isn’t to say Burrow won’t be rusty if and when he starts in Week 1, as fans undoubtedly remember the struggles in the season opener against the Steelers and over the first few weeks. But if coaches are saying it too, fans can take at least a little comfort that this one isn’t as bad.
