Joe Burrow had a little fun when he hopped on the Gronk & Jules Podcast recently, and one of the lighter moments came when he was asked which NBA player he’d compare himself to.
Burrow didn’t overthink it. He landed on Klay Thompson, the Golden State Warriors star who has collected multiple world titles and made a career out of being lethal from deep while holding his own defensively.
“I was like a poor man's Klay Thompson, like I can really shoot it. I can defend," Burrow told Julian Edelman on the FOX Sports podcast.
That answer fits the quarterback’s reputation on the field, where precision has always been part of his calling card. It also came during a conversation that touched on the Bengals’ place in the season as Cincinnati gets ready for its next AFC matchup with Miami.
The Bengals are stuck among the cluster of 2-2 teams and sit last in the AFC North. With the margin for error already tightening, the weekend game carries extra weight. According to RotoWire, no 2-3 team in the last decade has ever reached a Super Bowl.
Burrow addressed the bigger picture earlier in the season, when Cincinnati was 2-0 and the mood was more upbeat. Still, he made it clear then that he wasn’t interested in patting the team on the back for a fast start.
"We're not where we want to be yet," Burrow said to Edelman when the Bengals were 2-0 at the time. "I'm going to always push us to be perfect, but to be sitting where we are, how the games have played out, we're really happy with it.
Obviously, it's a long season. You know, the first two weeks have so many eyes on them, so much pressure on it, just because of how anticipated the entire country is, just go watch football.
"Those are probably two of the least meaningful games in the season. A lot of teams go 2-0 and don't do anything the rest of the year.
I think a team a couple years ago went 2-0 and ended up 3-14. So doesn't really matter what happens the first two weeks.
Just what happens the next week."
Through the games so far, Burrow has been good enough to keep Cincinnati in position, but not yet at the MVP-level standard he’s capable of reaching. This week gives him another chance to put together the kind of complete performance the Bengals need, especially one that comes without turnovers.
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