Joe Burrow had thrown for 2,688 yards, 13 touchdowns and five interceptions so far in his rookie season for the Cincinnati Bengals. He now looks set to miss the remainder of the campaign with a torn ACL suffered against Washington.
Monday 23 November 2020 15:08, UK
AJ Green is no stranger to injury setbacks and has urged team-mate Joe Burrow to 'attack every day' after the Cincinnati Bengals quarterback went down with a season-ending knee injury in Sunday's defeat to Washington.
Burrow had been putting together a fine rookie season after going No 1 overall at the 2020 NFL Draft, with the poise and playmaking ability as advertised during his stunning 2019 campaign with LSU.
Green knows all about the process awaiting him having missed the whole of last season with an ankle injury after being limited to just nine games in 2019.
"Just attack every day," he said post-game. "Sometimes, you're not going to feel like rehabbing. But you always have to look at the bigger picture and that's just getting back and getting ready to play football.
"That was my mindset over these two years. Keep attacking the day. Keep getting better. Keep staying positive and everything will work itself out. Joe, he is going to be fine. He's a fighter. He's a competitor. He is going to come back even better."
Besides his precision passing and decision-making with the ball in hand, Burrow also picked up where he left off at LSU as an incredibly popular figure in the locker room.
As much was on show at the weekend when every single Bengals player on the field, along with a host of Washington players, came to console him as he was carted off.
"The players have responded to him, the coaches have responded to him, the city has responded to him and all that is equally as important," said head coach Zac Taylor.
"He energises this team and he has been a tremendous player. Everything we had hoped he would be, and we'll get him back at some point.
"We don't know when that is, but for now we got to transform that energy and put it somewhere else in this team, again we got plenty of guys we can rely on."
The injury meanwhile raised questions over the handling of Burrow in his rookie year behind what has been an unconvincing offensive line, which Taylor was quick to defend after the game.
"We gave up a lot of pressure in the beginning of the season," he added. "In these last couple weeks our guys have done a great job of keeping people off Joe. He's had a great pocket.
"The hit, as I saw it, wasn't with the ball in his hand. People keep talking about the offensive line without seemingly watching the film for the last four weeks.
"Again, those guys have done a good job, it has been a revolving door of players they have been doing a great job. Joe has done a great job moving us down the field."
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