Joe Burrow isn’t pretending the Bengals’ outlook feels ordinary.
In an extended training camp conversation with Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, the Cincinnati quarterback said the atmosphere around this team has him thinking back to the same kind of “inevitable” feeling he remembers from his LSU championship run. Burrow said the signs were all there before that title, from the way the building felt to the way practice unfolded, and he sees echoes of that now.
“I just knew how things felt around the building,” Burrow said during the training camp interview. “I knew how practices were going.
I knew that offense fit my skill set more so than any one I had been in. It just made sense to me.
As I said, there was just a feeling around the building that it was inevitable.”
That sense of possibility is tied, in his mind, to the upgrades Cincinnati has made and the balance they could bring this season. Burrow pointed to a defense that looks deeper and more stable, especially up front.
“The vibe of the defense is really good right now,” he said to Breer. “Our defensive line is so deep this year.
The depth of that unit was a weak point last year, [but] now we have nine or 10 guys that we feel good about putting out there in five-down sets. Obviously, Dexter [Lawrence II] plays a big role in that.
Jonathan Allen plays a big role in that. And those guys have been vocal leaders for us to start this out, which is something that we needed.
We know what we have on offense, so we can take care of and experiment with things right now that we want to be better at, but we always know we have something in the back pocket that we can pull out and go to, that we’ve done for years at this point. And now we have more flexibility in our style of play on offense to win a game.
Burrow also made it clear he believes this offense no longer has to live on the edge every snap. He said the Bengals can lean on the run game and play-action more than they have in recent seasons, while still having the ability to open it up when needed.
“The last couple of years, it felt like every possession was do or die-you’ve got to go make a play on third down. Otherwise you’re going to fall behind.
It doesn’t really feel that way this year. I think we can commit to the run; we can commit to play-action.
As I said, we’ll drop back and throw it 60 times if we have to, but I don’t think that’s a recipe for success week in and week out. That’s something I have experience doing.
I think in 2020 and 2021, we were a run-the-ball, play-action team, and so I’ve done that. I’ve done the go-play-Superman when you have to.
I’ve got a lot of different experiences that I can pull from, too. As you get older, that will help you win ballgames.”
The bigger picture for Burrow is simple: get to the Super Bowl, then play at a level that can actually win it. He’s stayed healthy through the offseason, is entering Year 7 in the NFL, and says he’s better at handling the risks that come with the job.
That part matters because Burrow knows the postseason standard is higher than the regular-season one. He has put up strong numbers during the year, but his playoff production includes a 93.8 passer rating and a 5.8 adjusted net yards per attempt mark.
He’s also blunt about how he played in the Super Bowl loss to Los Angeles a few years ago. Burrow finished that game with one touchdown pass and 263 passing yards, and he doesn’t dress it up.
“I mean, I played fine,” he said to Breer. “Not good enough to win a Super Bowl against Matt Stafford.
And as far as my game now, it’s so much more evolved, and I’m such a better player than I was at the time, and I understand what it takes to do that. The better and better I get, the more I realize I wasn’t good enough.”
The Rams enter the season as the betting favorite to win the title at consensus +500 odds, and Yahoo! Sports’ Ben Fawkes noted that a favorite that short has gone 0-20 in trying to win the Lombardi over the last 30 years.
If Cincinnati ends that streak and Burrow is on the other sideline smiling, that would fit the kind of feeling he says he’s sensing now.
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