Sky Sports NFL’s Jeff Reinebold looks ahead to the Super Bowl LVI matchup between the Bengals and Rams, singling out Cincinnati’s ‘ice cool’ quarterback Joe Burrow for praise.
— A few different types of quarterbacks tend to make headlines around NFL free agency.
The former first-round pick looking for a fresh start; a veteran angling to make one more Super Bowl push; a placeholder for a team searching for a long-term answer.
The Cincinnati Bengals didn’t draft Joe Burrow to fill any of those roles. They wanted him to become a franchise quarterback.
That moniker now carries a double meaning for Burrow as the Bengals approach free agency. The third-year player fresh off a Super Bowl appearance isn’t just someone who the team is building around. When it’s time to evaluate incoming players, Burrow’s voice carries a significant amount of weight.
“He’s a huge part of what we do,” Bengals coach Zac Taylor said on March 1 at the NFL scouting combine. “This is certainly a quarterback-driven league and we want to make sure we are all aligned there.
The synergy between Burrow and the franchise was evident during his rookie year in 2020, with the Bengals opting to run many empty formations similar to what Burrow used during his record-breaking senior season at LSU.
Then, with the fifth pick in the 2021 draft, they selected wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase, Burrow’s teammate during his two-year run at LSU. Taylor said when the Bengals consulted Burrow about taking Chase, they were looking for any red flags before they reunited a pass-catch combination that produced more than 2,000 yards and 23 touchdowns in college.
Burrow said he didn’t tell Cincinnati executive Duke Tobin and the rest of the front office that the team must draft Chase. The team simply kept Burrow in the loop, offering a line of communication he said quarterbacks around the league value.
“I don’t need to feel like I made the decision,” Burrow said in February. “You could go with my opinion or go without my opinion. Doesn’t matter to me as long as I feel like I’m involved in the process, and I think the organization did a great job of that.”
When the Bengals were evaluating prospects and Burrow was doing rehab work from the left knee injury that ended his rookie season, Burrow said Tobin asked him to watch certain players and sought Burrow’s opinion.
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