Bengals Waive WR Jermaine Burton
Jermaine Burton‘s Week 14 Bengals suspension invited questions about how much longer he would remain on the team. A parting of ways is now taking place. 
Burton has been waived, head coach Zac Taylor announced on Monday. This marks a rather unceremonious end to the wideout’s two-year tenure in Cincinnati. Burton has not played yet this season, and despite being healthy he did not travel with the team to Buffalo for yesterday’s game.
Coming out of college, Burton was regarded as a highly talented prospect. Character concerns hurt his stock, though, and the Georgia and Alabama product fell to the third round of last year’s draft. Making 14 appearances, Burton’s rookie season saw him receive only 14 targets and make just four catches. Instead of developing into a depth option in the passing game this season, he has remained a non-factor through to today.
Taylor declined to specify the details behind Burton’s suspension (h/t ESPN’s Ben Baby). In any event, that has proven to be the final chapter in his brief Cincinnati tenure. The 24-year-old will now hit the waiver wire. In the event he clears – which can certainly be expected, given the circumstances – Burton will become a free agent. It will be interesting to see where his next NFL opportunity will come from.
In the meantime, the Bengals will move forward with a receiving group led now and for years to come by Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. Andrei Iosivas has remained a complementary No. 3 option at the position in 2025, and tight end Mike Gesicki represents another pass-catching presence for the closing stages of the season. Burton will not feature in that group moving forward.
Several positions on defense have been labeled as logical targets regarding offseason moves for the Bengals. Given Burton’s dismissal (and the fact Iosivas is a pending 2027 free agent), though, receiver could be seen as a secondary priority as well.
Bengals Suspended WR Jermaine Burton For Week 14
Jermaine Burton has yet to play this season for the Bengals. The second-year wideout continued that trend in Week 14 after he did not travel with the team. 
On Saturday, Burton was ruled out for the Bengals’ matchup against the Bills today for non-injury-related reasons. The team later announced that he had been suspended for the game. The decision will lead to over $59K in lost money by means of a forfeited game check (h/t Tom Pelissero of NFL Network). Details on what prompted this discipline have not yet emerged. Nevertheless, this represents another unwanted development for Burton.
A third-round pick last year, Burton had a quiet rookie season as Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, Andrei Iosivas, Mike Gesicki, and Chase Brown accounted for nearly 80 percent of quarterback Joe Burrow‘s targets. Burton was targeted 14 times in 2024 but only caught four balls. He did make the most of those receptions, though, proving his deep threat ability with 107 receiving yards.
This isn’t the first time the 24-year-old has not been allowed to travel with the team. In late-December 2024, Burton was accused of assault in a domestic dispute with an ex-girlfriend. Four days later, the Bengals announced that Burton would not be traveling on the team’s trip to Pittsburgh to end the season.
He hasn’t appeared in a game since that announcement, so there’s reason to believe the two data points could connect, but there’s been no reporting on the prior incident to suggest it’s been behind his extended absence this season. In fact, yesterday’s announcement of his suspension for today’s game indicates that he hasn’t been suspended to this point, so the absence throughout the year could be totally unrelated to discipline.
We can only report what we hear, and little has been coming out of Cincinnati this year concerning the second-year Alabama product. Whatever the situation, Burton may want to get on the right side of things soon. Glowing reports have already come through on the wide receivers at the top of the 2026 NFL Draft class, and the Bengals may decide to dip back into those waters if they think they can’t rely on Burton after this season.
Ely Allen contributed to this post.
Bengals WR Jermaine Burton Accused Of Assault
Bengals wide receiver Jermaine Burton is accused of assaulting a woman on December 30, according to police reports obtained by Sharon Coolidge, Cameron Knight, and Kelsey Conway of the Cincinnati Enquirer.
The woman, who Burton had been dating for several months, accused the player of chasing her inside her apartment, damaging her phone, and then assaulting her, including choking her. The woman also claimed that before Burton left the residence, he threatened to kill himself. The police report says the woman “suffered minor injuries but did not need medical attention.” The woman also initially intended to file charges before changing her mind.
According to Ben Baby of ESPN, the woman also told police that Burton had previously “pushed her down a set of stairs.” That incident hadn’t been reported to the police.
The incident took place days before the Bengals’ regular season finale. Burton didn’t travel with the team to Pittsburgh for that game, with the decision being described as a “coach’s decision.” The organization has since released a statement to the Enquirer:
“We are aware of information related to Jermaine Burton. We will continue to evaluate as we gather additional details and will have no further comment at this time.”
According to The Enquirer, the player is also facing eviction from his apartment, with those proceedings starting last month. ESPN adds that Burton’s “landlord filed an eviction notice and civil lawsuit against him” for lack of payment.
As both The Enquirer and ESPN note, Burton drew concern for his behavior during the pre-draft process. Specifically, the Alabama product was caught hitting a female fan who rushed the field following his team’s loss to the University of Tennessee. That instance (and other unreported anecdotes), led to teams passing on the wide receiver altogether.
Burton was ultimately selected by the Bengals in the third round. He failed to contribute in his 14 appearances, hauling in only four catches for 107 yards.
Latest On Bengals’ WR3 Competition
With Tyler Boyd now in Tennessee, the WR3 role in the Bengals’ offense is up for grabs. Whoever lands the gig will likely see plenty of targets in Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow-led aerial attack, and they will also be well-positioned for an even bigger workload in 2025 if Tee Higgins — who is poised to play out the upcoming season on the franchise tag — should depart in free agency.
As Jay Morrison of Pro Football Network writes, “there is an assumption” that rookie Jermaine Burton will serve as Burrow’s top target behind Ja’Marr Chase and Higgins on the club’s WR depth chart. There is plenty of justification for that assumption, as Burton spent four years establishing himself as a dangerous weapon in college football’s best conference. Across two seasons at Georgia and two more at Alabama, Burton caught 132 passes for 2,376 yards (an excellent 18.0 YPR rate) and 23 TDs. That type of explosiveness could make life quite difficult for opposing defensive coordinators, who will already have their hands full in accounting for Chase and Higgins.
Morrison is quick to point out, however, that second-year player Andrei Iosivas is very much in the mix. The Bengals viewed the Princeton product as something of a project when they selected him in the sixth round of last year’s draft, but he adapted to the pro game more quickly than expected and played well in relief of an injured Higgins in 2023. Morrison notes that Iosivas has earned Burrow’s trust, and he worked with a receiver coach this offseason to further refine his route running and technique. He secured 15 catches for 116 yards and four TDs in his rookie season.
Of course, even the wideouts that find themselves lower on Cincinnati’s pecking order will still have an opportunity to carve out a meaningful role. Charlie Jones was taken two rounds before Iosivas in the 2023 draft, and he made a notable special teams impact as a rookie, returning 23 punts for 248 yards, including an 81-yard return for a score. Longtime Bengal Trenton Irwin saw significant snap shares over each of the past two seasons, notching 55 catches for 547 yards and five TDs in that span.
Irwin was re-signed to a modest one-year accord this offseason.
NFL Draft Pick Signings: 5/14/24
Teams continue to sign their draft picks to rookie contracts. We’ve collected today’s miscellaneous signings below:
Chicago Bears
- OT Kiran Amegadjie (third round, Yale)
Cincinnati Bengals
- WR Jermaine Burton (third round, Alabama)
- TE Erick All (fourth round, Iowa)
Denver Broncos
- EDGE Jonah Elliss (third round, Utah)
Indianapolis Colts
- WR Anthony Gould (fifth round, Oregon State)
Minnesota Vikings
- OT Walter Rouse (sixth round, Oklahoma)
New York Giants
- CB Dru Phillips (third round, Kentucky)
Seattle Seahawks
- CB Tyrice Knight (fourth round, UTEP)