Joe Burrow could be wearing uncomfortable plate under his toe for a long time

Joe Burrow made his triumphant return to the field on Thanksgiving night and led the Cincinnati Bengals to an unlikely win over the Ravens in Baltimore before feasting on turkey with half the team on national television. Now the Bengals are 4-8 and only two games behind the Steelers and Ravens, and there is a path to the playoffs that seems not-so-long.

While Bengals fans are relieved their quarterback is back on the field, they’re also concerned about his turf toe injury and whether or not it could be re-aggravated. Burrow is wearing a protective plate under his toe, but it is very uncomfortable.

It also might not be very temporary.

“No,” Burrow said when asked if it was comfortable. “It was certainly a process to figure out what worked best for me and what was most comfortable and, at the same time, safe. But we worked through that, and a lot of different people were involved, and we got the right stuff.”

He went on to say that, as much as he’d like to ditch the plate, he will be wearing it at least throughout the 2025 season and “probably going forward.”

Turf toe, though it sounds minor, is a really nasty injury to the ligaments in the big toe joint, where tendons and other soft tissues in the joint stretch or tear. It has put more than one NFL career in the grave. Hopefully, Burrow gets used to his protective plate, because it sounds like it may not be going anywhere.