Zac Taylor: Burrow ‘ready to go’ for training camp

Burrow was given a day off each week during the offseason workout program, and Taylor said the Bengals will be proactive about giving proper rest in camp, particularly the first two weeks. The first practice is Wednesday.

“Any guy that comes off an injury, whether it was three days ago or three months ago, training camp is long,” Taylor said. “One thing I have learned is just be proactive with managing it. You will never regret being proactive the first week, two weeks of training camp. There are plenty of reps to go around. Opportunities for other guys behind people on the depth chart. I’m not just talking Joe, but a whole gamut of guys I’ve got penciled in. Those are things I’d be careful to read too much into early in training camp because we are just giving guys an opportunity to make sure veterans are freshest during training camp.”

Taylor does plan to play starters, including Burrow, this preseason.

Last year, that was the plan and only the defensive starters ended up playing in one game, but Burrow had injured his calf and it didn’t necessarily make sense to risk other players on that side of the ball when their regular quarterback wasn’t even there to run the offense.

With a lot more changes on offense this year, following the departures of Tyler Boyd and Joe Mixon and changes at tight end and right tackle, it could be beneficial to give the offense game reps together.

“Anticipating playing our guys,” Taylor said. “You know, how much, how many games is to be determined. The schedule is a little quirky with the second and third game being kind of back-to-back, and we’re practicing with both those teams, as well, so you get good work there. So, certainly do see our starters playing at some point. How much or little will kind of be dictated through the first two weeks of practice and how I feel about that.”

The Bengals will be trying to get through camp as healthy as possible. Burrow’s calf injury last year set them back as it took him about four weeks into the season to really start feeling mobile again. He still has not gone through a full, normal training camp because COVID protocols wiped out preseason games his rookie year, the following season he was returning from knee surgery and in 2022, he missed the start of camp due to an appendectomy.

Taylor said Burrow’s calf injury, which happened on Day 1 on camp last year, led to more discussions on how to avoid those types of issues in the future, but that isn’t necessarily anything new.

“We talk about that to death every preseason,” Taylor said. “We really structure our practices and how we track people in GPS to prevent the soft tissue, lower extremity things. And really, we’ve been very successful compared to the rest of the league over training camp, and so it’s never going to be perfect, because everybody’s a little bit different. It was unfortunate that happened last year, but there’s a lot of time and effort being placed into conversations with Matt Summers and Joey Boese and everybody involved over the last several years, not just this year.”

New offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher said he doesn’t see any need to change what the Bengals do schematically to account for the fact he is coming off wrist surgery. They believe they can still do everything they want to without that affecting how they attack offensively.

The only thing Pitcher needs to see from Burrow this preseason is him consistently commanding the offense.

“I don’t need to see anything from a performance standpoint in training camp to convince me that Joe’s gonna have a good year,” Pitcher said. “We need Joe to be out there. He’s going to be out there. He’s worked himself into a really good place physically and mentally. ... Just having him and the effect that he has on everyone around him, I think, we feel it because we’re out there. We’re standing there. We know what it does. And I think you guys fully understand that as well. But that’ll be a nice part of having him out there for all of camp.”

Burrow acknowledged during OTAs that his injuries have taken a toll on him mentally but he’s learned how to get past that.

The front office still believes in Burrow and his ability to prepare to get ready for the season, according to Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin, and Taylor doesn’t sense any doubts or anxiety on Burrow’s part as he tries to put his injury history behind him.

“I don’t sense that,” Taylor said. “You know, those are all personal things that he can better answer than I can. But no, my impression of him, just seeing him over the last several months has been very positive, and he’s ready to go.”