Nine weeks after suffering a turf toe injury that completely derailed his season, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow returned to practice on Monday. While Burrow won’t be suiting up this Sunday against the Pittsburgh Steelers, he is making steps to reportedly return for the Bengals’ Thanksgiving matchup against the Baltimore Ravens.
NFL Insider Jordan Schultz provided the latest on Burrow’s timeline, even revealing why the organization really decided to hold onto All-Pro defensive end Trey Hendrickson at the Trade Deadline.
“Joe Burrow has officially returned to practice with the Bengals opening his 21 day window to return from IR and his turf toe injury,” Schultz said. “Joe is targeting a Thanksgiving Day comeback game to go up against the Baltimore Ravens in Baltimore. Now listen, this is surprising. This is incredibly early. Not only because of the caliber of injury, but just the timeline we all thought, which was basically mid-December.”
“So Burrow is way ahead of schedule and with that in mind, it gives us a real look under the hood as to why the Bengals were so hesitant to trade Trey Hendrickson, knowing full well that he’s probably on his way out after this season when he’s a free agent. If you’re the Bengals in the very rugged, but very winnable AFC North, and you get Burrow back by Thanksgiving or right around that day, you’ll absolutely have an opportunity to make a playoff push.”
Burrow, who is in the midst of his sixth NFL season, suffered the turf toe injury in week two’s 31-27 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars in Cincinnati. The former No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft is coming off a phenomenal 2024 campaign, in which he passed for 4,198 yards, 43 touchdowns, and was named Comeback Player of the Year for the second time. Prior to his injury this year, Burrow passed for 189 yards and two touchdowns in six quarters of play.
Due to Burrow’s absence, the Bengals initially turned to back-up quarterback Jake Browning at the position. With Browning as its starter, Cincinnati dropped four consecutive games to drop to 2-4 on the season. They then traded for former Super Bowl Champion Joe Flacco to take over the position, which quickly turned into a 33-31 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday Night Football.
Although the Bengals would score 39 points and 47 points in their next two games with Flacco at the helm, both games were lost due to poor defense. It appears now that Flacco will lead the organization into its upcoming games against the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New England Patriots before Burrow returns for the aforementioned Thanksgiving game.
Artemi Panarin is beginning to shake off his early season struggles.
With a newly shaven head, the star Russian wing has posted nine points — three goals and six assists — in the last four games after assisting on four goals in the Rangers’ 7-3 win over the Lightning on Wednesday night at Benchmark International Arena.
Just like that, Panarin leads the Rangers in points (16).
“I think when he’s at his best, the puck follows him around,” head coach Mike Sullivan said Wednesday after an optional morning skate. “He finds a way to have it a lot. I thought the last game he had it a lot. There are probably a number of reasons for that, but that’s what the game looks like when he’s at his best. I think he’s a threat off the rush. I think he has an uncanny ability to delay or slow the play down and allow the rush to go by him and then create opportunity. I think he’s getting better as far as supporting the play in the offensive zone. We’re trying to encourage him to be a little bit closer to his linemates, and I think he’s doing a better job there.
“I thought his line had more offensive zone time. I think that line has the ability to create offense in a number of different ways. They’re going to be dangerous off the rush because they’re talented, but they can build that grind game and they can be dangerous there also, because they’re talented. But that takes collective effort there, and that’s where we’re trying to help them. But I thought the line in general had a strong game last game.”
Artemi Panarin battles Jake Guentzel for the puck during the Rangers’ 7-3 blowout road win over the Lightning on Nov. 12, 2025.
Despite looking rather disconnected through the first few weeks of the season, Panarin has collected four multipoint games through the first 18 contests — including one three-point game and two four-point efforts.
The Rangers have a record ofare 4-0 every time Panarin has collected multiple points in a game this season.
“My confidence [is] OK now,” Panarin said after his two-goal effort on Monday against the Predators. “Better than before.”
Igor Shesterkin saved 33 of the 36 shots he faced in his sixth win of the season.
In a move he said was largely due to matchups, Sullivan shifted Will Cuylle up to play with J.T. Miller and Mika Zibanejad toward the end of the second period and through the third.
“[Lightning coach Jon Cooper] wanted that match with [Nikita] Kucherov, [Jake] Guentzel and Brayden Point,” Sullivan said. “We just felt like that’s a tall task for a young kid [Gabe Perreault] that hasn’t played a whole lot in the league. If that was going to be the match, we thought it made more sense to have a guy like Will play with J.T. and Mika in that circumstance. Some of it was just based on the feel of the game, but some of it was just from a matchup strategy standpoint.”
The Rangers signed Spencer Martin to a two-year contract Wednesday before putting the 30-year-old goalie on waivers. If he clears, Martin will be assigned to Hartford.
Appearing in nine games for the Hurricanes last season, Martin posted a 3-4-1 record with an .846 save percentage and a 3.89 goals-against average.