Joe Burrow signs with Bengals, officially beginning a new era of Cincinnati football

Joe Burrow is officially under contract with the Cincinnati Bengals.

Joe Burrow signed his rookie contract with the Cincinnati Bengals, all is good in the Queen City.

We knew Burrow was eventually going to put pen to paper with the AFC North franchise. The Bengals used the No. 1 overall pick on the 2019 Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback formerly of the LSU Tigers. They believe he can be the savior of the franchise, playing like some variation of Joe Montana, Tony Romo and Matt Ryan for this long-suffering football team. But will he, though?

Can “The Geauxt” become “The GOAT” for Cincinnati Bengals football?

The Bengals have gone the longest of any time in the NFL without winning a postseason. This came in the 1990 NFL season back when former MVP Boomer Esiason was their starting quarterback. Burrow wasn’t even born yet, so he’s entering a football franchise in desperate need to change its culture. Fortunately, he was a culture changer at LSU and he can do the same here.

To be fair, Cincinnati has had some excellent quarterbacks over the years. Esiason won NFL MVP. His predecessor Ken Anderson won an MVP too and is widely seen as the best quarterback not inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and it’s a complete embarrassment that he’s not enshrined yet. Carson Palmer and Burrow’s predecessor Andy Dalton were Pro Bowlers.

But the big key for the Bengals is winning in January. For a while there under former head coach Marvin Lewis, Cincinnati was one of the better teams in the AFC. However, Cincinnati went a dreadful 0-7 in postseason games under their former head coach. Now entering year two under Zac Taylor, maybe Burrow is the catalyst for change for this struggling AFC franchise?

The Bengals went 2-14 in Taylor’s first year on the sidelines. The former Nebraska Cornhuskers quarterback stemming from the Sean McVay coaching tree, as he was the Los Angeles Rams quarterbacks coach before getting the Bengals gig last year. Let’s hope the Nebraska connection between Taylor and the rest of the Burrow clan unite to bring the best out of the Bengals.

With Burrow under contract, the future for the Bengals franchise is very bright going forward.