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In the Queen City, the expectations for Joe Burrow’s rookie season are sky high.
He’s bringing with him a certain type of hype that hasn’t been around Cincinnati football in decades. You’ll have to go back almost a full decade to the 2011 NFL Draft to even see anything that’s matched the excitement level that Burrow is bringing in.
The hype is justified though.
Burrow will enter as one of the best quarterback prospects the NFL has ever seen. Pro Football Focus predicted Burrow to be the second-best quarterback in the next five years, only topped by Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes.
Is Joe Burrow going to play well right away in his rookie campaign? Considering the COVID-19-impacted offseason, probably not. But regardless of how he performs out of the gate, we believe he’ll be a star in the NFL.
Burrow’s 2019 season was one of the best in the history of college football, and it was no fluke. He’s far and away the most accurate quarterback we have ever come across. He threw over 70% of his passes beyond the line of scrimmage accurately in 2019, leading the country by 4 percentage points. And that wasn’t some massive improvement from the year prior, either — in 2018, he ranked ninth among all FBS quarterbacks in the same metric.
As Treash notes, Burrow was absolutely incredible at LSU. Playing in 13 games in the 2018 season, Burrow almost doubled his production as the Tigers found their way to an undefeated season with numerous primetime victories in 2019.
With 60 touchdowns and 6 interceptions, Burrow smoked teams on his way to what felt like two easy victories in the College Football Playoffs.
He’ll bring that swagger with him to Cincinnati where he’ll try to help rebuild a two-win team with the help of Jonah Williams and A.J. Green, two other players that failed to make an appearance in 2019.
That said, Burrow’s offensive line isn’t the best, but his receiving corps is among the best in the league. With Covid-19 wrecking some OTA plans, Burrow is entering the season without too much professional exposure.
He’ll be tested early and often. It could be a tough rookie season for rookie quarterback; nonetheless, he’ll still be expected to be a star in the near future.