Schultz goes on to suggest that this timeline is part of the reason the Bengals didn’t want to move Trey Hendrickson at the NFL’s trade deadline. Other prior reporting has suggested the Bengals lowered their asking price on the trade block, but other teams didn’t want to pay even that.

Here's where they need to go for the playoffs to be a likely outcome. Burrow is definitely out for this week's game against the 5-4 and AFC North-leading Pittsburgh Steelers, and it's a safe assumption for him to miss next week's matchup against the New England Patriots.