Joe Burrow slides in NFL.com quarterback rankings

NFL.com just released their first quarterback rankings of 2021, and Cincinnati Bengals fans will argue that Joe Burrow was ranked far too low.

Burrow slid all the way to 26th in the most recent edition of the rankings. He was sandwiched in between Tua Tagovailoa at 25th and Jared Goff at 27th.

For what it’s worth, Justin Herbert, who Burrow will be compared against for the rest of his career, was ranked 7th.

Here’s what they said about Burrow:

I worry about the offensive line. I worry about the arm strength Burrow showed as a rookie. I worry about Zac Taylor. I worry about Burrow missing the offseason coming off a torn ACL. I worry he’ll take a step back in the areas of his game that are his calling cards — accuracy and uncanny confidence — coming off surgery. Burrow could be very good in the long run without being that good this year, especially early.

In general, these quarterback rankings are going to be controversial among various fan bases.

While the writer was concerned about Burrow’s preparation going into this season with a still unproven head coach, he had no qualms about rookie quarterbacks with first-year head coaches. Trevor Lawrence and Zach Wilson were both ranked higher than Burrow despite playing on depleting rosters with first-time NFL head coaches.

While protection was a concern for Burrow, Herbert was praised in spite of his protection. Was Herbert elevated because the Chargers rebuilt the offensive line? The Bengals did that too.

Most Bengals fans will disagree with these rankings, and they would be justified in doing so.