Cincinnati’s first month isn’t shaping up to be the most grueling four weeks of an NFL schedule, but does include key meetings with AFC North foes in the first two games. The Bengals start 2023 in Cleveland, where they haven’t won since Burrow arrived in 2020, and they’ll return home in Week 2 to face a Ravens team that they narrowly defeated on Super Wild Card Weekend last season.
Starting the season 0-2 wouldn’t be ideal, of course, and will be much more difficult to avoid if Burrow cannot play. Chase knows the final record matters more than a couple of early games, but if he had it his way, he’d get Burrow right immediately. It’s a sentiment supported by the fact that the Bengals started 0-2 last year before returning to the AFC Championship Game.
“I wish I did, man,” Chase said when asked if he had healing hands for Burrow. “I’m looking at him every day, watching him every day, seeing his rehab, so you know he looks good right now, like I said when it first happened, I’ve seen his demeanor and the way that he felt I could already tell what happened to him. So he’s in good hands, working well, getting his sleep in.”