The Bengals’ inactive list for Sunday’s game against the Raiders had an unexpected name on it.
Wide receiver Jermaine Burton was a healthy scratch after quarterback Joe Burrow and others had spent the week talking about how the third-round pick was ready for a bigger role with Tee Higgins battling a quad injury. According to multiple reports, Burton missed the team’s walkthrough on Saturday.
Head coach Zac Taylor did not get into specifics for why the team chose to sit Burton, but said it was a necessary reaction to something that happened late in the week.
“Jermaine was a big part of the plan, and as the week unfolded there were a lot of positive things people were saying about him,” Taylor said, via a transcript from the team. “It was all true, and then late in the week we’ve just got to handle all of our business the right way. I can sit here and say it was a difficult decision to make him inactive, but it was absolutely the right decision with all the information we had. He’s a guy who’s going to have, I think, a really good career here, and we’re going to support him. He wants to help us win and do things the right way. Today was just a necessary step we had to make, but we’re going to get him back in the fold and keep him moving along and becoming a pro. There’s a lot of things to love about Jermaine, so his best days are in front of him and we’re going to make sure he achieves that.”
While playing for Alabama, Burton struck a female fan during a game at Tennessee and former Alabama coach Nick Saban said the wideout’s “emotional maturity” as an issue he had to work on as a professional. Taylor said during the draft that he was comfortable with Burton and reiterated that on Sunday, but it’s clearly still a work in progress for the rookie.
