What are the Realistic Expectations for Joe Burrow & the Bengals This Season?

Joe Burrow lands fourth on Jeremy Fowler's quarterback rankings, and that number kicked off a spirited back-and-forth on The Rich Eisen Show about exactly what the Cincinnati Bengals should expect this season.

Chris Brockman came ready to argue Burrow's case, and his angle was clever. He compared Burrow to a golfer who wins a major and earns a five-year exemption into every other major. "I think this is the last year of Joe Burrow's exemption for taking the Bengals to the Super Bowl," Brockman said. His point: the bar we set for quarterbacks is getting to the Super Bowl, and Burrow got there. The defense has traditionally been bad, the offensive line has not been great, and the injuries, Brockman wondered aloud, might be a product of the protection rather than the player.

Then came the question that cut to the center of it. "If you had one game to win and Joe Burrow was your quarterback, would you feel confident about winning that game?" Rich's answer was immediate. "Bingo, sir. Bingo. You just hit the target." Rich agreed there is no reason to put Burrow on any list of quarterbacks under pressure, because he simply does not exude it. "The guy doesn't exude it at all, and it doesn't feel like it weighs on him."

Rich's counterweight was the one that keeps Burrow from climbing higher. It is not a one-game season, it is a full-season slog, and Burrow has not always been able to answer the bell. "Your best ability is availability," Rich said, and that is the reason a player this talented sits fourth instead of first. "That's why he's fourth on the list, because he is that freaking good."

The conversation dug into the résumé. As Rich pointed out, Burrow has done what Josh Allen has not, and what Lamar Jackson has not, reaching a Super Bowl. Fowler noted the flip side, that Burrow got there but "the results have yet to mirror" the Tom Brady comparisons that greeted him early. He drafted ahead of Tua Tagovailoa and justified it fast, but the next level, the all-time-great tier, is still out in front of him. Fowler placed him in "the Dan Marino zone," a great player still chasing the ultimate validation.

The realistic-expectations question extended to the whole team. Rich revealed that when asked at the American Century Championship to name a sleeper this year, he pitched the Bengals. Brockman pushed back, and hard. "Can't be a sleeper if you got the number four quarterback in the league," he said. Rich's defense was that a sleeper is a team everybody has counted out, one whose coach is thought to be on the hot seat and that has been underperforming relative to its talent. The Bengals, in his telling, qualify.

Fowler and Brockman were not buying the label. "The fourth best quarterback cannot be a sleeper," Brockman insisted. Whether or not the sleeper tag fits, the underlying belief in the room was clear. Burrow is good enough to win any single game you hand him. The season-long questions around Cincinnati, the defense, the line, and above all the availability, are what stand between him and the top of the list.