Star quarterback Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals are currently in the midst of what figures to be a highly important offseason for the future of the franchise ahead of the 2024 NFL campaign. The Bengals have been on an upward trajectory for the last three years but saw a dip in 2023-24 thanks in large part to a wrist injury sustained by Burrow that kept him out for the stretch run of the season.

This injury led some to wonder whether the quarterback will be ready for the 2024-25 season when it gets underway in three months, and recently Burrow dropped a positive, albeit slightly murky, update on his status for the year.

“(It's) tough to say,” said Burrow, via Charlie Clifford of WLWT on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter. Burrow also reiterated that “I’ll be ready to go by the season.”

Burrow was reportedly given a day off from voluntary workouts on Tuesday to help rehabilitate his ailment.

“If you ask him, he's going to be out here every day,” head coach Zac Taylor said, per Ben Baby of ESPN. “And that's part of the problem — defending the player from himself.”

Can the Bengals bounce back?

As previously mentioned, the Bengals suffered somewhat of a lost season in 2023-24 thanks to various injuries along with another slow start to the year, something that has happened in two straight campaigns now, even when they were fully healthy.

Of course, it will be vitally important that Burrow is in fact healthy when the season gets underway for the Bengals to avoid digging themselves another hole to start this year.

“When he knows I'm saying something, he knows I mean it,” Taylor said about Burrow's rest day. “Sometimes he knows when it's up to discussion and sometimes it's not. I think he knows we're doing the right thing.”

The Bengals still have their core roster together that led them to the 2022 Super Bowl and the 2023 AFC Championship Game, and will hope to reestablish themselves among the conference's elites this year as a slew of new teams like the Baltimore Ravens and Miami Dolphins attempt to throw their hat in the ring.