Joe Burrow found a pretty good resource to help him deal with his calf injury. The Bengals quarterback sought Aaron Rodgers' counsel as he tries to play through his injury that was initially suffered during the first week of training camp. Burrow was a full practice participant on Thursday for the first time since he aggravated the calf injury in Week 2.
It appears that Rodgers' advice paid instant dividends for Burrow, who despite the injury played well enough to help the Bengals win their first game of the year this past Monday night against the visiting Rams. Burrow rarely got hit and completed 26 passes in Cincinnati's 19-16 win.
"He's dealt with calf issues his whole career and wanted to use him as a resource and get his thoughts, what he might have done," Burrow said of Rodgers, via ESPN. "He's been through it, done that. And he was great about it."
"[I'm] going to continue to use that as a resource," Burrow added." He's a great guy. Whenever you have a guy like that that's willing to help, you're going to use it."
Rodgers was the first to publicly acknowledge that he and Burrow spoke about Burrow's current predicament. Like Burrow, Rodgers is also dealing with an injury, albeit a more significant one. The four-time league MVP is recovering from surgery after he tore an Achilles tendon during the Jets' season-opening win over the Bills.
"For him to tough it out, I don't think that people realize how much pain and limited mobility he was in," Rodgers said on "The Pat McAfee Show." "But for him to gut it out last night and to make enough plays to win, like I texted him, that's what great competitors do. They show up and play through the pain and don't make it a big deal."
This isn't the first time Rodgers has given advice to Burrow, who was a freshman in high school when Rodgers won his first and only Super Bowl with the Packers. Rodgers gave Burrow some sage advice after a narrow Packers win in Cincinnati back in Week 4 of the 2021 season.
"I will tell you the thing that I told him, which I've told other quarterbacks from time to time: 'Slide. Slide,'" Rodgers said at the time. "I said, 'You're too damn talented, you got so much in front of you to accomplish in this league. Just sometimes you gotta slide. I would've said the same thing to Andrew [Luck]. You know, Andrew initially got hurt in Indy being Superman and running guys over and stuff."
Burrow must have listened to Rodgers. He hasn't missed a game due to an injury since his rookie season, largely because of his self-awareness on quarterback runs. Burrow obviously listened then, and it's clear that the 26-year-old is listening to his 39-year-old peer now.
