The Cincinnati Bengals recently suffered a huge blow to their campaign after reports confirmed that star quarterback Joe Burrow had suffered a season-ending injury. For his part, Houston Texans QB Deshaun Watson was one of the first to reach out to the embattled rookie in an attempt to provide any sort of assistance he could.

Watson, who himself suffered a similar ACL injury a few years back, offered some words of encouragement for Burrow:

“I just want to say prayers out to Joe Burrow and his family and him and his team, the Cincinnati Bengals,” Watson said, via Mike Florio of NBC Sports. “That’s just a tough situation. I watched the play . . . and that just kind of puts things in perspective where it can be any play. So you’ve just got to be grateful for the position you’re in, but sending my best wishes and prayers out to him and his family.”

The Bengals rookie appears to have sustained a far worse injury than that of Watson, with Burrow reportedly tearing both his ACL and MCL, while also suffering other structural damage to his knee. The injury will require months-long of rehab, but according to reports, the first overall pick is expected to make a full recovery. For his part, Watson remains adamant that this is something Burrow can overcome:

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“If he’s got any questions, I dealt with the same thing my rookie year around a similar time, kind of November-ish. He can always reach out to me and I can reach out to him,” Watson said. “Prayers out to him. Hopefully a speedy recovery. I would just say when I came back it was just definitely making sure that I was 100 percent and I was really, really comfortable, especially at this level where everything is flying around. But once you’re out there, you’ve just got to play full throttle. That’s the part of the game. You kind of know situations are going to happen. With me, with my situation, when I did it in practice, I didn’t know it was going to happen then and then it happened. When I came back, I kind of started off a little shaky. But after the first couple of plays I was like, ‘Hey, I got to cut it loose.’ If not, then I’m going to be a burden for the team and then for myself, too. I want to be able to play to my full potential.”

This is some great advice coming from a guy that has been through the exact same path Burrow will be taking over the next several months. Watson himself suffered an ACL injury early on his career, but has since been able to emerge as one of the top quarterbacks in the league today. Burrow's injury has also been compared to that of Carson Wentz back in 2017, and he too was able to overcome that hurdle in his career.

It's going to be an undeniably tough road ahead for the young quarterback, but at this point, all Burrow can do is to keep his head up. Prayers up for him.