Joe Burrow is fine, but Trae Waynes is out another week

The Cincinnati Bengals will not have starting cornerback Trae Waynes when they face the Chicago Bears in Week 2.

Head coach Zac Taylor revealed Monday that Waynes will miss another week as he recovers from a hamstring injury. The fact that Waynes is already being ruled out for a game six days away does not bode well for his Week 3 availability either.

Bengals insider Malik Wright previously reported on Aug. 30 that Waynes was set to miss several weeks to a month. If it’s the latter, Waynes could miss Week 3 vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers and Week 4 vs. the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Saying this, if the Bengals really thought he was going to be out that long, they could have placed him on injured reserve and brought him back to the 53-man roster.

Remember, an unlimited number of players can now return from a team’s injured reserve list, and they are eligible to do so after missing a minimum of only three games. Those changes were made in 2020 to help NFL teams adjust better to losing players to a COVID-19 diagnosis or contact tracing.

The Bengals did manage to come out of Sunday’s win over the Minnesota Vikings relatively unscathed on the injury front. However, there was a brief scare with Joe Burrow, but Taylor expects the second-year QB to be fine this week.

After being sacked late in the fourth quarter on a 3rd-down play, Burrow came up gimpy and limped to the sideline while holding his shoulder. That certainly brought some angst to Bengaldom since Burrow was making his first regular-season start since tearing his ACL and MCL last season.

Thankfully after sitting on a bench for a minute, Burrow got back up and started throwing on the sideline. He didn’t miss a snap the rest of the way as he led Cincinnati to victory in overtime, which included arguably the most important pass he’s completed in his brief NFL career.

Burrow would finish the game 20/27 passing (74.1%) for 261 yards and two scores, good for a 128.8 passer rating and 60.3 QBR. While taking five sacks was far from ideal, it’s clear that Burrow will continue to be a menace for opposing defenses as long the Bengals can keep him upright.