Joe Burrow will succeed for the Cincinnati Bengals no matter what.
We’ve seen enough out of Joe Burrow to know he will save the Cincinnati Bengals franchise.
Despite being 0-2 in his first two career NFL starts, the Bengals made the correct decision by taking the 2019 Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback out of LSU with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. In the last two weeks, The Geauxt has given this typical AFC North bottom-feeder hope to pull off early-season upsets. He possesses poise and confidence rarely seen by a rookie.
Joe Burrow’s spirit is unbreakable, one the Bengals can’t even break
For anyone who is any semblance of a college football fan knows how special Burrow’s senior season at LSU was last year. He went undefeated, leading the Bayou Bengals to their fourth national title in school history, putting together one of the greatest single seasons by a player in the history of the sport. It was on the level of Barry Sanders in 1988 and Cam Newton in 2010.
We all saw the accuracy, we all saw the pocket presence, we all saw the impeccable footwork and we all absolutely saw the swagger. While he may not have the strongest arm or the prototypical frame, Burrow will end up being some version of Tom Brady, Jared Goff, Joe Montana, Tony Romo or Matt Ryan. In short, he is going to work out just fine as the next face of the Bengals franchise.
Though the Bengals have never won a playoff game in his lifetime, it’s abundantly clear Cincinnati has a player akin to what Ken Anderson, Boomer Esiason, Carson Palmer and Andy Dalton were at their peaks. Dare I say it, what if he becomes what we thought Greg Cook could have been coming out of the University of Cincinnati back in 1969? Whatever “it” is, Burrow has plenty of it.
Here’s how we all know it’s going to work out for Burrow and the Bengals in due time. In his first career start, Burrow didn’t throw a touchdown pass but nearly brought his team to victory. Had it not been for an awful OPI call on borderline Pro Football Hall of Famer A.J. Green, Burrow would have thrown his first career touchdown pass last week. Then, the Randy Bullock shank happened.
This isn’t to say the Los Angeles Chargers are a great team by any means, but neither are the Bengals. It was two mediocre teams playing in the early window on Sunday in Week 1. Burrow suffered his first loss since falling to SEC West rival Texas A&M in seven overtimes in November 2018. The loss didn’t break him, as he bounced back with an even better performance in Week 2.
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Four days later, Burrow nearly defeats the Cleveland Browns in this year’s first installment of the Battle of Ohio on Thursday Night Football. With no Geno Atkins or Mike Daniels playing on the defensive line, the Browns ate in the ground game with Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt, forcing the Bengals to play from behind for the entire game. This required Burrow to throw the ball 61 times.
Yes, in his second career start Burrow was asked to throw the ball five dozen times. He threw the ball essentially three times as much as his AFC North counterpart and Heisman Trophy fraternity brother Baker Mayfield. Now in year three with the Browns, Mayfield seems to have finally figured out how to be mature as the face of the franchise, something Burrow has exemplified from Day 1.
Though Burrow’s stats through his first two starts aren’t eye-popping (61.9 completion percentage, 509 yards, three touchdowns, one interception, 5.2 yards per attempt), he’s been fed to the wolves behind this wet paper bag of an offensive line and has survived. Cincinnati may win more than two games in 2020, but they’ll be picking inside of the top 10 of the 2021 NFL Draft.
Once the Bengals are on the clock in the 2021 NFL Draft, they will do what is necessary to get Oregon Ducks offensive tackle Penei Sewell to be their 21st century Anthony Muñoz. Yes, we are comparing Sewell to the greatest player in Bengals franchise history who played in two Super Bowls in the 1980s with two different MVP quarterbacks. Maybe Sewell can be that for Burrow?
While it is too early to tell if Burrow will join the upper echelon of AFC quarterbacking greatness with the likes of Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson, it wouldn’t be the least bit shocking if these are the fearsome foursome at the top of their conference throughout the 2020s. Burrow may not win as much as them, but no doubt he is a bona fide culture changer.
On Thursday night, he showed us why he’s the best quarterback in his draft class and the Bengals can’t possibly break him. In a game Cleveland won that was exclusively broadcasted on The NFL Network, there’s a reason we’re all talking about Burrow on this Friday morning. He not only makes the Bengals interesting, but he’s going to be the catalyst for change they have needed.
At this point, there really is no way the hapless Bengals can find a way to screw this good thing up.