Timelines
Sidelined since Sept. 14 with turf toe, Burrow saw a 21-day window open Monday even though he has yet to be cleared for full activity. In this 21-day period, Burrow may begin limited practice with the team without counting against the 53-player active roster. He's eligible to be activated to the roster during the 21-day window.
But Burrow isn't opening any windows just yet. Such as when asked if a return is based on where the Bengals are in the race.
"We'll see. We'll see how these next couple of weeks go. We'll see how it feels," Burrow said. "We'll make a good decision when the time comes.
"We have 21 days to figure that out. Could be early, could be late in that window. We are still pretty early post-surgery for this injury, so we have a couple of weeks of practice to figure that out and see how it goes."
Burrow left no doubt he'd like a chance to influence the division proceedings and admitted it would be "very," meaningful if he returned for the Thanksgiving Night game in Baltimore 17 days away.
(It will be recalled when the schedule came out back in the spring, Burrow asked the league to note that it was the Bengals' fourth straight prime-time game in Baltimore.)
But asked if that game is a target, he said, "We'll see how the next couple of weeks go."
Not Shoe-less Joe
Burrow says he's working on a special kind of shoe to help the toe.
"It's an ongoing process. We're figuring out what works for me, and I have to have a lot of hardware in there to protect it. So there's been a lot that has gone into that," he said.
His footwork has been the literal base of his impeccable throwing mechanics, but he doesn't think they'll be impacted by the injury.
"I'm not too concerned about the actual mechanics of the throwing. That feels good, the toe, specifically, the front toe, isn't very involved in that, and it's just the planting, and I'm strong enough," Burrow said. "And we feel good about doing that at this point. It's just the running, cutting, twitchy short stops that we're going to have to see over these next couple of weeks. How it feels and where that goes."