Joe Burrow Is Elite Despite Bengals Play Calling & Offensive Line

There has been a remarkably high amount of Joe Burrow criticism this offseason, following the Bengals' nine-win season, which is simply unfounded and manufactured outrage.

I expand on my expectations for the 2025 Bengals and Burrow specifically in my newly published 2025 Football Preview, but I needed to set a few things straight with Burrow specifically.

Click here for a full FREE chapter from the 2025 Football Preview.

For this discussion, we’re going to look at 38 quarterbacks since 2021 with at least 750 attempts.

Zac Taylor’s offense gives Burrow the fewest hacks or shortcuts to efficiency of almost any of these quarterbacks:

He stands in shotgun on 92% of attempts (#3 highest rate), uses play action just 19% of the time (#35 of 38 QBs), and gets pre-snap motion ahead of just 37% of dropbacks (#30 of 38 QBs).

Stand like you’re about to pass, get the snap, and pass the ball.

This style of offense has Burrow averaging the #4 fastest time to throw.

He gets the ball out QUICKLY.

His 2.5 seconds to throw is SIGNIFICANTLY shorter than the NFL average of 2.7 seconds.

Because of these facts, defenses rarely blitz Burrow.

He’s blitzed at the #1 lowest rate of any quarterback in the NFL.

That shouldn’t be a surprise.

Logically, if you are facing a quarterback who throws at a high rate, is almost always in position to throw quickly (#1 shotgun rate), AND has a lightning quick release time (#4 lowest), blitzes won’t get there in time to impact the QB, so you wouldn’t want to blitz very often.

So defenses don’t.

Naturally, the more you are blitzed, the more likely you are to be hit quickly by a pass rusher.

The less you are blitzed, the less likely you are to be quickly hit by a pass rusher.

But flying directly in the face of that logical concept, despite the fact that Burrow has been blitzed at the #1 lowest rate of any QB over the last four years, no quarterback has been hit by defenders more quickly than Burrow!

Burrow has been hit within 2.5 seconds of the snap at the #1 highest rate in the NFL.

He’s also been hit within 2.5 seconds 25% more than even the #2 most-hit quarterback in the NFL.

So whether you’re talking rate (frequency) or volume (total hits), Burrow is getting destroyed in the pocket at the fastest and highest rate of any quarterback.

It makes very little sense given his lightning quick #4 fastest release time.

It makes very little sense given he’s blitzed at the #1 lowest rate of any quarterback.

The only way something like this could happen to a quarterback would be if they played behind a terrible offensive line.

Sure enough, that is what Burrow is dealing with.

The Bengals are the only offensive line in the NFL to rank #25 or worse in pass block win rate for four straight years:

2021: #30
2022: #30
2023: #27
2024: #32

Despite this NFL-worst pass protection and despite the NFL-most quick pressure faced, Burrow has produced absolutely ELITE passing statistics these last four years.

Out of those 38 quarterbacks since 2021, Burrow ranks:

#1 in overall completion rate
#1 in third down completion rate
#2 in accuracy

From an efficiency perspective:

#2 best passer rating (103.3)
#3 best TD rate (5.9%)
#4 in TD to INT ratio (3.1 TDs to every 1 INT)
#5 in yards per attempt (7.6)
#7 in success rate (48%)
#10 in EPA/att (+0.09)

On third downs, he is impeccable:

#1 accuracy
#1 completion rate
#3 success rate
#4 first down conversion rate

Statistically, Burrow is quite literally one of, if not the, top quarterbacks in the NFL, and he’s doing it all behind the worst pass blocking offensive line in the league under the type of quick duress no other quarterback faces.

The spun up narratives to try to tear down a great quarterback in the prime of his career to criticize him for things like pocket movement or awareness when he already has one of the fastest release times of any quarterback, while still delivering the best comprehensive performance of any quarterback, is unfortunate and disappointing.

I have many more thoughts on Burrow, the 2025 Bengals, their run game, their defense, their coaching, their 2025 ceiling, and similar analysis on all 31 other teams in my newly released 2025 Football Preview.

I highly encourage you to check it out today, there is no better use of your time or money in July, as it is the absolute fastest way for you to get smart for the 2025 football season!

Order Warren Sharp's 2025 Football Preview now to read detailed breakdowns for all 32 NFL teams, including the Bengals.

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