Cincy Jungle
The Cincinnati Bengals are in the second week of the 2025 preseason as they prepare to bounce back from an embarrassing 9-8 finish, despite their top-tier offense, which kept them out of the playoffs for the second year in a row. In their first preseason outing against the Eagles, Burrow and the rest of the first-team offense looked like they hadn’t missed a beat, and the quarterback seems poised for an MVP season.
Folks around the league obviously see what Bengals fans all over the world see in Burrow, as 50 NFL coaches and executives have unanimously ranked him as a top-tier quarterback. In fact, according to Mike Sando, he is tied with Patrick Mahomes as the best quarterback in the league.
“This is Burrow’s fourth consecutive season in Tier 1 and his first as a unanimous top-tier selection,” Sando wrote. “Rodgers (six), Mahomes (five), Tom Brady (four), and Russell Wilson (one) are the only other unanimous Tier 1 selections in the survey’s history.”
One offensive coach even knocked the Bengals for how they’ve protected him.
“Burrow could be a 1 with a red cross on him. They don’t protect him, and he gets the s*** knocked out of him constantly,” the anonymous coach said.
Jay Morrison pointed out that Burrow is the second-most sacked quarterback in the league, behind Russell Wilson and slightly ahead of Baker Mayfield, Justin Herbert, and Daniel Jones. Since the 2020 season, he’s the fifth-most hit quarterback behind Wilson, Herbert, Kirk Cousins, and Patrick Mahomes.
The Bengals cut Alex Cappa, restructured Cordell Volson’s contract, signed Lucas Patrick, and drafted Dylan Fairchild this offseason to attempt to stabilize the guard position, which caused the majority of the issues in 2024. While some fans, and at least one coach, don’t believe they’ve done enough, Burrow has done amazing things with much less (see the Super Bowl offensive line in 2021).
Hopefully, some combination of Lucas Patrick, Dylan Fairchild, Cody Ford, or Volson can give Burrow the protection he needs from the interior of the offensive line, which, in turn, gives him time to find one of his ridiculously talented receivers down the field. If not, he’ll likely do it anyway, but he’ll just get the snot knocked out of him while he’s doing it.
