The Bengals survived Joe Burrow's early-season calf injury, with the fourth-year quarterback not missing a game, but a new injury surfaced for Burrow on "Thursday Night Football" against the Ravens.
A day after a video showed a mysterious wrap on his hand, Burrow struggled to throw the ball on the sideline and was taken back to the locker room with what the team labeled a wrist injury.
Burrow hasn't missed a start since he tore his ACL as a rookie, and any time off the field for the Bengals star is obviously troubling for Cincinnati's hopes.
MORE: Latest injury updates on Mark Andrews
If Burrow misses any time?, who is the next quarterback up on the Bengals' depth chart?
Bengals QB depth chart
1. Joe Burrow
Burrow is, of course, the Bengals' starting quarterback. The 26-year-old recently became the highest-paid player in NFL history, inking a five-year, $275 million deal just days before the start of the 2023 season.
Burrow has been battling a right calf injury since the preseason, and he hasn't looked 100 percent through two games so far.
The star QB only threw for 82 yards with zero touchdowns in Cincinnati's season-opening loss against the Browns. He followed that performance with 222 yards, two touchdowns and one interception against the Ravens, but it also came in a losing effort.
After "tweaking" his right calf against Baltimore, it'll be worth monitoring Burrow's status all the way up until the Bengals' "Monday Night Football" showdown against the Rams in Week 3.
2. Jake Browning
If Burrow can't go, the Bengals will have to turn over the keys of the offense to Browning — the only backup QB on their depth chart.
Browning went undrafted in 2018 after four impressive seasons at Washington. The 2016 Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year threw for over 12,000 yards in college, pitching 94 touchdowns to just 34 interceptions with a 64.6 percent completion rate.
As impressive as those numbers are, Browning couldn't replicate his 2016 success in the seasons that followed, leading to his disappointing draft weekend. In five NFL seasons, 2023 was the first time Browning made a team's active roster.
He had only played four snaps in his NFL career — coming at the end of the Bengals' Week 1 loss to the Browns — before entering "Thursday Night Football."
This preseason, Browning threw for 277 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions with a 71.1 completion percentage over three games.
Practice squad: A.J. McCarron
Former Bengals backup A.J. McCarron was brought back by Cincinnati as insurance when Burrow was questionable with a calf injury entering Week 3. He remains on the team's practice squad as their emergency third quarterback.
McCarron spent the first four seasons of his career with the Bengals, largely as a backup to Andy Dalton. He started a playoff game against the Steelers but made only one start with the Texans after leaving Cincinnati in free agency.
