After tearing an ACL as a rookie last year, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow admits that it took him a while to get back to feeling normal in the pocket. He came up with a pretty ingenious way for him to protect his rehabbing knee while still getting up to speed on his pocket awareness.
Following a Bengals practice this week, Burrow revealed the drill to reporters. He said that 11 days ago he realized he didn’t have his current level of confidence in the pocket.
With his teammates unable to hit him in practice (for very good reason), Burrow still wanted to experience some sort of “pass rush.” Now, he has the team’s offensive coaches “crowd” him in the pocket and throw bags at his legs to simulate defensive players getting after him.
“The one day where we started changing that, doing it differently, it felt back to normal very quickly,” Burrow told reporters Wednesday. “We went out there early one day, started throwing bags at my legs. I’m sure everyone saw it, and I was back to normal after that.”
Joe Burrow on his comfort level this week says he feels like his old self #Bengals pic.twitter.com/u9Ck6b2XOU
— Kelsey Conway (@KelseyLConway) August 18, 2021
Joe Burrow wasn’t quite ready for the team’s first preseason game, a 19-14 win over the Tampa Bay BUccaneers. Kyle Shurmur and Brandon Allen handled quarterback duties in that one.
He won’t suit up for preseason game two either. The Bengals take on Washington Football Team on Friday. His status for the third and final game—home against the Miami Dolphins—remains up in the air. Zac Taylor and his staff are being understandably cautious, but Burrow, ever the competitor, wants to go.
“I’ve been lobbying,” Burrow said. “Just saying what plays I might like against Miami, third downs, first couple plays. Just throw some plays out there and put them in their head.”
The Cincinnati Bengals will begin regular season play at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday, Sept. 12 at home against the Minnesota Vikings.
The post Joe Burrow Reveals How He Got Back To Normal At Practice appeared first on The Spun.
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