5 QBs who deserve to be benched after NFL Week 1
- An AFC and NFC veteran who may be toast
- Why is this guy starting in the first place?
- Two franchise QBs who played horrendously
2. Joe Burrow, Cincinnati Bengals
There were some doubts early in training camp when Joe Burrow went down with a calf injury that he might not be able to suit up for the Cincinnati Bengals' opener on the road against the rival Browns. After the way he played in that game, some fans might be wishing he hadn't actually been cleared to play.
Burrow put forth arguably one of the worst outings of his career. The new highest-paid player in NFL history completed just 14 of his 31 passing attempts on the day for only 82 yards. Thankfully, he didn't make the day any worse by committing any turnovers, but given that was the case, it's hard to imagine him having a worse day than the one he did.
No one is looking at this game and immediately thinking that the Bengals made some historic blunder paying their quarterback with the lucrative new contract. We've seen how high Burrow can get Cincinnati to fly and he's well worth every penny in the current QB market. Even so, that's not the start that anyone wanted to see from him. More importantly, it's unfortunately timed after signing that contract extension this week.
With that being said, Burrow has not been fully healthy in Week 1 in pretty much any season since he came into the league and his numbers reflect that. What he did on Sunday against the Browns, though, is by far the worst that we've seen in his career, and something the Bengals need to get cleared up quickly.