Why Joe Burrow wants to play more in the preseason and create a new normal

New York Times

3 days ago

CINCINNATI — Joe Burrow sat in a chair at the front of the Bengals' media room, still sweating from the first day of training camp kicking off his sixth NFL season.
There wasn't much to ask Burrow about the 2025 season that we don't already know. His story was documented in Netflix's 'Quarterback,' and he spent the offseason as vocal as he's ever been about himself, his team and the direction of the franchise.
Burrow's come close to doing it all in the NFL since arriving as the No. 1 pick in 2020. He's played in the Super Bowl, beaten Patrick Mahomes, competed for MVP, signed as the highest-paid player in league history and even pushed on management over contracts for his teammates.
But has he ever enjoyed a normal training camp?
'I certainly haven't in a long time, that's for sure,' Burrow said.
This felt like an odd question to ask, but Burrow's July-August existence during his career could only be described as such.
Let's recap his surreal summers.
• 2020: Rookie starter enters in COVID-19 year and lockout, no offseason program.
• 2021: Returning from rehabbed ACL injury.
• 2022: Appendectomy keeps him off the field for weeks, loses 20 pounds.
• 2023: Calf injury (and re-injury), contract negotiation.
• 2024: Ramping up after an unprecedented wrist injury for an NFL QB.
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All of these situations left unease and uncertainty about what the first few weeks of the season would look and feel like for Burrow. Despite all his accomplishments in the NFL, he's never been able to enter opening day with clear confidence in what to expect from his body and his performance.
It led to one of the wildest splits you'll ever see and the overwhelming point of emphasis from the Bengals' 2025 offseason: They must start faster.
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Talk about distractions all day, those are a small sliver of what's gone wrong for the Bengals in consistently digging holes for themselves early in the season. The clunky first two weeks for Burrow — fully understanding the health-related circumstances — contributed a much more significant chunk.
Following the 2022 season opener, where Burrow threw four interceptions and had a lost fumble in a 23-20 overtime loss to Pittsburgh, the idea gained momentum that the star quarterback should start playing more in the preseason games. Coach Zac Taylor had been against starters playing in the preseason early in his tenure and still resisted in an effort to keep his stars healthy. Yet, Burrow's lean the other direction became hard to ignore.
'Coaches know how I've felt about that and how I've always thought that that would benefit me, for sure,' Burrow said. 'I think other positions, you have to be a little careful, because how physical that those positions are, but for me, those reps are valuable.'
Between the appendectomy and the calf, the next two seasons were non-starters for preseason play. Last season, he was limited for select days early in camp but made his first real preseason appearance despite working back from the wrist injury and threw eight passes in one touchdown drive.
He only held the ball for more than 2.4 seconds once – a 42-yard incompletion to Tee Higgins.
Burrow arrives at this training camp without an ailment (that sound you hear is the entire Tri-state area and Burrow fantasy owners collectively knocking on wood). Not only that, he has his full complement of star receivers back and past the contract squabbles of recent years. He's surrounded by continuity and comfort. If all goes well, the time has finally arrived to gain value in real preseason action.
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'He will participate every day like he normally would fully healthy, then anticipate playing him more in games than we ever had,' Taylor said.
Plans can go awry with the tweak of a muscle, of course, but in a year where starting fast has never been more important, Burrow wants to be part of the solution instead of the problem.
In his mind, there's just no way to replicate the mental and physical speed of a live NFL pocket.
'For me, you can practice full speed against the defense all you want, but you're not getting hit,' Burrow said. 'You're not quite feeling that. And the D-line is stopping. Free runners are stopping a couple of yards before they get to you, number one. And then you can work on scrambling a little bit. You can get that timing of how quickly you actually have to get the ball out of your hand in those preseason games. Whereas in training camp, you try to simulate that as best as you can. But it's not quite the same.'
For Burrow, mentally ramping up is not quite the same, either. The lead-up to each preseason game he's playing in will add to a different approach to ramping up his own preparation that just hasn't been there in past years.
'I think you approach (practice) a little differently when you start to get closer to the preseason games,' Burrow said. 'That'll feel more like a game week for me. Obviously, you're still doing training camp practices and trying to get the most out of those, but mindset-wise, when you're traveling to these preseason games, it's going to be a little different mindset, a little different feeling. I think that would be positive.'
Ja'Marr Chase laughed when asked if there were aspects to training camp he missed while holding in for a contract extension last year.
'Not at all, if I'm being completely honest,' he said. 'I had great legs last year.'
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It's hard to argue with the man who went on to win the receiving triple crown. But the season started with a 16-10 loss and an ugly offensive performance from Burrow and Chase, with Higgins tweaking a hamstring days before the opener. Chase barely practiced and both were out of sync. Then Chase was assessed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in what he dubbed 'crashing out' late in a 26-25 loss to Kansas City in Week 2.
'I love to work,' Chase said. 'At the end of the day, I get to work on stuff that I didn't work on last year and getting that real feel from the DB and working on certain things that I wanted to do this year. I get a chance to do it in camp now instead of just doing it in games.'
Burrow to Higgins. Still works.
Burrow back on track thus far today with a much crisper performance after the sloppy first day. pic.twitter.com/DF6F1SeK0b
— Paul Dehner Jr. (@pauldehnerjr) July 24, 2025
There was Higgins, who spent Thursday catching a 58-yard touchdown pass from Burrow and a feathery over-the-shoulder grab on the sideline like it was midseason against the Ravens. He's paid, healthy and happy.
Contracts and continuity — with a splash of preseason snaps — have all sides seeing a chance for the offense to break the repetitive cycle. If you don't want to repeat the past, then, well, don't repeat the past. So Burrow and his stars logging multiple preseason games of snaps would be a significant change to go along with others to the camp schedule.
Time will tell if it works or backfires into the same old early-season woes. Listen closely and you hear one more wood knock for good measure.
'I'm excited for the chance to get better,' Burrow said. 'Those are valuable reps that we haven't had in the past for good reason, but I think we're making the right decision this year, and I think that's gonna benefit us in the long run.'