Bengals owner admits he wanted to bench Joe Burrow after team's 0-2 start in 2023

If Bengals owner Mike Brown had gotten his way last season, Joe Burrow would have been sent to the bench after the team's 0-2 start.

At the time, Burrow was still dealing with his calf injury and Brown wanted to see it fully heal before allowing his franchise quarterback to play again. After opening the season with a loss to the Browns in Week 1 and another loss to the Ravens in Week 2, the Bengals were facing a pivotal Monday night game against the Rams in Week 3.

Three days before that game, Brown decided to attend practice and during that session, he took Burrow on a golf cart ride that almost instantly went viral.

At the time, it was pretty clear from Burrow's facial expression that he definitely wasn't thrilled with what Brown had said.

Burrow and Brown both kept the content of the conversation private, but 10 months later, Brown has finally revealed what the two talked about.

It seems that the Bengals owner told Burrow that he didn't want him to play against the Rams.

"I was convinced he shouldn't play, and he looked like he wanted to play in that game, and I went out there to tell him he wasn't going to play," Brown said on Monday, via Fox 19 . "I was going to make sure he wasn't going to play, where upon he played. That's all that happened."

It might seem crazy to want your franchise quarterback on the bench, but Brown's thought process made some sense at the time. Due to his calf injury, Burrow was largely ineffective through Cincinnati's first two games. In the two losses, Burrow averaged just 152 yards per game, he showed little mobility and he was 0 for 12 on passes of 15 or more air yards.

Although Brown didn't want Burrow on the field, his quarterback ended up playing in the Monday game and the Bengals ended up picking up their first victory of the season with a 19-16 win over the Rams. Including that game, the Bengals went 3-1 over the next four weeks heading into their Week 7 bye. Following their bye, they came out and beat both the 49ers and Bills in consecutive weeks.

The Bengals were 5-4 before Burrow was lost for the season due to wrist injury that wasn't related to the calf injury Brown wanted to bench him for.

During his interview on Monday, Brown admitted that he definitely regrets trying to bench his star quarterback.

"I still feel a little bit shame-faced about it," Brown said. "I try to stay away enough that I don't get in the way. I don't want to be a problem for the coaches. In that particular moment, I overstepped and did a dumb thing."

Brown likes to keep his hand on the pulse of the team, but you can bet he'll never try to bench his star quarterback ever again, even if he is battling an injury.