Joe Burrow hasn’t gotten offseason work in, but the Bengals aren’t worried.
The Cincinnati Bengals are in the early stages of their rebuild, but they’ve already got their cornerstone of the future in No. 1 overall draft pick Joe Burrow. The franchise’s hopes hinge on the Heisman-winning quarterback out of LSU now, so even though the Bengals aren’t expected to be a playoff team in 2020, his gradual progress will be instrumental in returning to contention.
On Wednesday, head coach Zac Taylor dropped some nuggets of knowledge on reporters via Zoom — namely, that Burrow will be ready to start as the team’s No. 1 quarterback despite a lack of offseason workouts, preseason games and a shortened training camp.
According to Bengals reporter Geoff Hobson, here’s what Taylor had to say about his star rookie:
“We took him because we have high expectations for Joe,” he said. “From everything I know of him and seen of him, he’s got high expectations for himself. He’s going to do everything he can to put himself in a situation to be successful. I trust that. I think when you guys get a chance to talk to him you’ll feel the same way.”
The Bengals aren’t worried about Joe Burrow
Taylor said every player has reported to Paul Brown stadium, with rookies beginning walk-throughs and veterans going through their three days of COVID-19 testing before physicals on Sunday. Burrow is expected to sign his contract and get his physical on Thursday.
With the Bengals’ season opener against the LA Chargers set for Sept. 13, Burrow won’t have much time to get acclimated to the NFL. The lack of preseason games puts him at a disadvantage as far as getting his feet wet, but this is also one of the rare quarterback prospects coming off one of the greatest seasons in the history of college football that we’re talking about.
No offseason program? No problem for Joe Burrow.