Bengals QB Joe Burrow received a big dose of disrespect this week
Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow seemingly thrives off being disrespected. From the way teams play defense against him (who can forget "you can't zero me!"), to the NFL selling tickets for an AFC Championship game that didn't involve the Bengals (better send those refunds), it seems like Burrow is always more than willing to face […]
Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow seemingly thrives off being disrespected.
From the way teams play defense against him (who can forget "you can't zero me!"), to the NFL selling tickets for an AFC Championship game that didn't involve the Bengals (better send those refunds), it seems like Burrow is always more than willing to face disrespect head-on. And it feels like he often plays better because of it.
So maybe it's a good thing that Burrow received another dose of disrespect this week.
Former NFL quarterback Robert Griffin III, who is now an analyst for ESPN, recently ranked his top AFC quarterbacks and he put Burrow at No. 4.
Griffin's reasoning is that Burrow has benefited from having Ja'Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, and Tyler Boyd in Cincinnati.
There's no doubt that Burrow benefits from playing with Chase, Higgins, and Boyd. But that's also a two-way street. Those players benefit from playing with Burrow, too.
We've seen plenty of stud wide receivers go through down years because they weren't in a good quarterback situation. And even when wide receivers have great years, it doesn't automatically guarantee team success (Davante Adams have over 1,500 receiving yards last season for the Las Vegas Raiders, but Vegas didn't reach the playoffs).
Burrow is easily a top-two quarterback in the AFC (along with Patrick Mahomes). And anyone who disagrees can just look at the results of the last two seasons — Burrow has led Cincinnati from the bottom of the NFL to a Super Bowl appearance and two AFC Championship game appearances (and one conference championship).
This is just another piece of bulletin board material that Burrow can use for motivation in 2023.
Of course, it's not like Burrow needs motivation. But as the former LSU quarterback said during the playoffs, if it's there, you might as well use it.
