So much for Cincinnati Bengals rookie Jermaine Burton not having an impact as a rookie.

Burton, facing scrutiny over reports that he had a rough summer, broke onto the field during Sunday's loss to the Kansas City Chiefs and immediately put up a huge highlight.

The play was a simple deep bomb from Joe Burrow that Burton easily reeled in after beating the defense deep, good for 47 yards.

And even though he didn't have a major bit of work on the official snap counts, Burton's usage sure was unexpected after he worked with the fourth team and returned kicks during the preseason -- while a report said he might face a redshirt year over playbook issues.

The highlight is nice, of course:

But this goes far beyond a highlight. Tee Higgins is out and Trenton Irwin was struggling with his heavy dose of snaps. Even Andrei Iosvias, for as impressive as his two touchdowns were, had a key drop.

If nothing else, Sunday was proof that Burton is going to be hard to keep off the field. Limited route tree and/or playbook mastery or not, his ability to stretch the field clearly has a big value.

So much so, it's going to be hard for the team to justify keeping him off the field at a decent snap count even when Higgins comes back.

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This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: Jermaine Burton proved he belongs on field with explosive play vs. Chiefs