The play came during the first few days of Bengals camp and, to the untrained eye, would’ve seemed nondescript and insignificant.
But the details within said everything about the direction of Joe Burrow and Cincinnati’s offense.
Breaking the huddle, the group had a run call to the open side of the formation, and as the quarterback was going through his cadence, a linebacker walked down to that end of the line of scrimmage, settling where the back was going. In a regular season game, the coaches would have a “can” on the call—a secondary play call that Burrow could check to in the sort of circumstance he was facing—but this was too early in camp for that.
Burrow quickly saw it, with new defensive coordinator Al Golden giving him the equivalent of an unscouted look—and adjusted. He audibled to a throw to take advantage of what he anticipated would be zone coverage, with more players up on the line. Ted Karras snapped the ball. Burrow got to his third progression. He found a receiver sitting in a dead spot in the zone. He picked up 12 yards.
Now, the twist: The Bengals hadn’t even installed the play for training camp, and hadn’t run it in any capacity since early in the spring.
“I think that shows the intellectual capacity of everyone on offense,” Burrow said, smiling, after I took him through what I’d heard. “Number one, [center] Ted [Karras] called out that it was a bad look to run the running play that we were running into. And so, that communication happened and I just got to a base pass play that we always have in our offense that wasn’t in yet. But it's one of our base concepts, and we lined it up quickly, ran it, got a completion.
“So I just think that’s the connectivity of everybody on offense being on the same page.”
Burrow is now 28 and headed into his sixth season in the NFL. He’s been to two Pro Bowls, won Comeback Player of the Year twice, made it to a Super Bowl and two AFC title games, and last year led the NFL in passing yards (4.918), touchdowns (43), was third in passer rating (108.5) and fourth in completion percentage (70.6).
In every previous year of his career, he has been coming off something. In 2020, as a rookie, it was COVID-19 bastardizing his first offseason and camp. In ’21, it was a torn ACL. In ’22, an appendicitis sidelined him for most of camp. In ’23, it was a calf injury. And last year, there was a pretty concerning wrist injury rarely seen in quarterbacks, not to mention his receivers’ contract situations.
So this really is Burrow’s first normal offseason as a pro.
And that singular, seemingly routine snap early in camp gave the coaching staff, wowed by what they’d seen, and everyone else on the practice field that day, a glimpse into where Burrow & Co. might take this newfound advantage that no one is taking for granted.
Burrow's challenge: score points
Even through the first few challenges he faced as a pro, Burrow’s career has been a verifiable rocket ship. The Bengals were in the Super Bowl in his second year. They returned to the AFC title game in his third year, making consecutive conference title games with a franchise that had only gotten to two in its previous 53 seasons of existence.
Burrow’s success came on the heels of a national title at LSU, and pronouncements that the old Bengals were gone, and the team’s championship window would be open as long as he was playing.
Since, Cincinnati has gone 9–8 twice, and missed the playoffs in both 2023 and ’24. And the experience has given the quarterback a perspective on how hard the climb back up the NFL mountain is after being so close to the summit two years in a row, and making those pronouncements that he still wholeheartedly would stand by.
“Certainly, it does,” he said. “A lot has to go right for that to happen—we know having gone through the last two years, having what it takes on our side of the ball to make that happen, regardless. And I think that’s certainly feasible on our end. And I think it’s our job to play at as high a level as possible, and we have a lot of young guys on defense that we anticipate playing well and being good players. But trying to allow those guys to come along and find their groove, our job on offense is to allow them to be able to do that.”
Indeed, the defense has a new coordinator, in Golden (who returns after leaving for Notre Dame three years ago), and nearly half of its starting lineup could turn over. That group will face Minnesota, Denver, Detroit, Green Bay and Pittsburgh in succession from Week 3 to 7. So there’s a good chance, as Burrow is intimating, that the Bengals will have to outscore teams early, as Golden gets his footing, and rookies such as first-rounder Shemar Stewart get their feet wet.
The good news is that no one’s doubting the Bengals’ ability to do that.
That’s not based on what Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins did during that Super Bowl year or the year after—it’s based on what just happened. The 2024 Bengals scored 472 points, breaking the 2021 team’s franchise scoring record. There are all the statistics we laid out on Burrow himself, then Chase coming off a triple-crown season, becoming just the fifth receiver since the merger to lead the league in receptions, yards and touchdowns. There’s also Higgins with a clear head, and a line that returns both tackles and its center, and running back Chase Brown looking like a breakout candidate.
It’s also that they had the chance, over the past four months, to create moments like the one above from early in camp. Those weren’t happening the past five years, simply because the continuity of the group, be it because of injury or roster turnover, never got to where it is right now, which they see as part of the team’s recent spate of slow starts to seasons.
“The only way you can get better at this game is by practicing it, repping it, and we haven’t had that all together for three, four years,” Burrow said. “So, just providing us more opportunities to get better, the great ones take advantage of those opportunities.”
“Tweaking things, adjusting things, continuing to get better at the things we thought we did well, everyone’s really hit the ground running, all offseason, all training camp,” coach Zac Taylor added. “It’s been really exciting in that way to have a lot of normalcy there with this group of guys, because it is …
Taylor then paused, smiled and said, “It is a very talented group.”
So, as for where those opportunities for Burrow are and the offense, and how the tweaks Taylor referenced will show up, Burrow pointed back to the offense’s consistency.
Cincinnati was held to 17 points or fewer three times in its first eight games last year, and the team was 3–5 going into November. So Burrow wants to clean up stretches where the spectacular was oftentimes followed by lulls—and the way the team played at the end of the year is proof to him they can get there.
Exhibit A, for him, came in the late-season Saturday night shootout win over Denver, a game the offense essentially had to win three times, first with a go-ahead touchdown in the final two minutes of regulation, then in setting up a potential game-winning field goal that wound up missing in overtime and, finally, with the actual game-winning drive after that.
“I just think of the whole ending of that Denver game,” Burrow said. “We put together three drives at the end of the game, that walking off the field you think, O.K., we won the game. And then you don’t, and you have to lock back in and find that drive again. And like I said, we did it three times. Doing that is hard, and so I was proud of that game, proud of our guys to be able to have that feeling, walking to the sideline and then being able to lock back in and find that fire again to go and put together another game-winning drive like that.”
Burrow’s challenge now, to lift a defense through growing pains and ultimately to get back to the mountaintop, is to find that level all the time. The advantage he’ll have this year is that he’ll be a lot closer to 100% than he has been in the past.
Burrow’s wrist never felt quite right
A year ago, the wrist injury Burrow sustained on a Thursday night against Baltimore in 2023, one that ended that season for him, had the quarterback concerned. There wasn’t much history of guys at his position, or even pitchers in baseball, having had it. So what it would mean for him moving forward remained a moving target.
In the end, he figured it out.
The reality, as well as how he played last year, was that it never felt quite right.
“I really wasn’t throwing it the way I could before,” he explained. “I could always put it where I wanted to put it; I’m not inaccurate that way. But just the spin rate, the natural throwing motion, I didn’t quite have back yet.”
Which is to say, yes, the wrist affected him while throwing for 4,918 yards and 43 scores.
“For sure, and it still does,” he continued. “It’s like an ACL … The further you get out from it, the better it feels. It takes several years to feel back to what it was before. But if I was 100% of my natural throwing motion before, I’d say I’m 90 to 95% right now. So I’m feeling good.”
But that doesn’t mean, for this particular quarterback, there wasn’t a benefit to enduring that.
He’d say now that his inability to throw through the 2024 offseason put even more emphasis on his movement work—“I’m always trying to get more athletic”—and that showed up last fall. Also, it only deepened his appreciation for what he has around him, in guys such as Chase and Higgins, and emerging young guys like Andrei Iosivas, who’s earned his trust, and Brown.
“I got great players around me,” Burrow said. “They did a good job of reacting to all of the wobbly balls that I was throwing last year, so hopefully this year I can make it a little easier for them.”
Burrow was smiling as he said it, but it did take a certain chemistry for him and the receivers to work through all of that, which gives everyone a high baseline to work off this year.
That especially goes for Chase, who has been with Burrow since they were LSU teammates in 2018.
“It’s trying to work on the new things that we don't normally see and what we’re trying to adjust to in coverage,” Chase said. “The new stuff … I think that’s what we are trying to excel at right now.”
Of course, for the team as a whole, there’s still one piece of business to accomplish.
Burrow’s approach affects change
Burrow’s promise that he’d change the face of the Bengals’ franchise hasn’t, and won’t, stop when he crosses the white lines to leave the field, and the last year is as clear an indication of that as you’ll get. He spoke up for Chase. He spoke up for Higgins, too, when it seemed like the team would have to pick one or the other, given how much each would cost.
Against all odds, both are now signed long-term. But Trey Hendrickson isn’t.
As Burrow gave voice to the plight of Chase and Higgins, he’s done the same for the team’s star pass rusher, because, as he sees it, that’s what’s best for the organization.
“I just think having somebody that can relay the feelings of the locker room, number one, to the head coach, because Zac is very involved up there and he’s not in it like we are, that’s the quarterback’s job,” Burrow said. “And number two, this is a family organization. And I feel that family atmosphere. I feel comfortable going up to Katie [Blackburn] and Troy [Blackburn]and Mr. [Mike] Brown. We have a great relationship and I think the more that I can explain the thoughts of the locker room, explain why doing one thing one way might affect feelings in the locker room, as opposed to doing something a different way, it’s my job as a quarterback to be able to relay information like that.
“And whatever their decisions are with that information, that’s for them to decide.”
Along the way, that approach has begun to affect change.
His five-year, $275 million extension, signed two years ago, broke a lot of previous precedents the Bengals had for the contracts they’d do for stars. That set the stage for Chase’s deal, which brought similarly elevated levels of guarantees.
Meanwhile, while Burrow’s been the quarterback, the team finally invested in a practice bubble, and this offseason beefed up the league’s smallest scouting/personnel staff. Before Burrow arrived in Cincinnati, there were questions about whether the franchise was the right one for him to hitch his career to, given its pre-existing reputation. Instead of running from that, the quarterback has made himself an agent of change.
“This is a partnership in my opinion and we’re all on the same team wanting to do what’s best to win games,” Burrow said. “I think everyone is growing and learning, every day, every year. And we see how the league is changing with contracts in other places, and we are too—we paid top-of-the-market for two guys this offseason. We did the same thing the offseason before.
“I have faith that if you go out and perform, you’re going to get rewarded around here, so hopefully we continue to do that.”
Given how the bar’s been raised—where 9–8 seasons like the past two are seen as disappointments—it’s fair to think more such deals will come as time goes on.
As such, the outcome of Hendrickson’s case will be interesting.
Burrow is ready to put on a show
All that said, no bar is higher than the one Burrow sets for himself. He’s confident he can clear the ones he and his teammates are putting in place for his sixth year.
“We want to be the best offense in the NFL,” he said. And he knows where that starts.
To that end, he’s talked to other stars in sports—Houston Rockets star Kevin Durant is one he’s gotten close to (“He’s been a nice resource for me”)—about his process, and being more consistent while getting the most out of those around him.
He knows how he’ll be judged, and he’s O.K. with that, too.
He needs to keep playing well. His team does, too. Because, in the end, guys at his position aren’t measured on throwing for the most yards or touchdowns.
“I’m not sure I would say anyone is playing the position better than I am right now,” he says. “I'm pretty confident in my ability to go out and do that every Sunday. Now, it’s just showing that consistency, showing it year in and year out. I think what separates the legends is being able to do it year in, year out for five, 10 years at a time. So, trying to be able to find that consistency in my discipline and my process, doing the easy stuff in my sleep and then making the hard stuff look easy, then making a couple of great plays here and there, that’s what I am trying to do every week.”
And this offseason has him prepared in a way he couldn’t have been the past five years.
What it amounts to remains to be seen. But by the looks of it, Burrow is as ready as he’s ever been to put on a show.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Joe Burrow: No QB Is ‘Playing the Position Better Than I Am Right Now’.