Joe Burrow Expects to Be Fully Cleared From Wrist Surgery by May

Joe Burrow says his recovery from season-ending wrist surgery is going smoothly.

The Bengals’ franchise quarterback expects to be fully cleared by May and is planning to throw during the team’s offseason OTAs. Burrow said he usually doesn’t start throwing footballs during the offseason until OTA’s, and believes his offseason schedule is right on track.

“I think middle of May is when I am expecting to kind of be cleared for full contact and everything,” Burrow said via Ben Baby of ESPN.com. “Over the next month [to] month and a half, we’ll kind of decide all those things.”

The Bengals have already placed the franchise tag on wide receiver Tee Higgins, but Burrow is looking for the team to add more pieces during free agency and the draft. After winning back-to-back AFC North titles, the Bengals didn’t make the playoffs last season. Burrow said his injury, suffered Nov. 16 against the Ravens, wasn’t the only reason Cincinnati missed the postseason.

“We need the guys that we draft to come in and be productive and take on the leadership roles that we’ve lost the last couple of years,” Burrow said. “And we need to bring in the right pieces this offseason too, whether it’s the draft or free agency.

“Like I said, the injuries were what they were last year, but we weren’t good enough in a lot of different places to make a Super Bowl run in my opinion.”