Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow wasted little time in cementing himself amongst the best young quarterbacks in the NFL. After only three seasons as a professional, he has accomplished things that many people can only dream of achieving.
The No. 1 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft had his rookie season cut short because of a torn ACL, but he has bounced back better than ever since. In 2021, his second season in the NFL, he helped lead the Bengals to their first playoff win in nearly three decades. They didn’t stop there as Cincinnati advanced to the Super Bowl and a matchup with the Los Angeles Rams.
While they lost that game, the Bengals are now perennial contenders in the AFC. They advanced to the AFC Championship Game in the 2022 season, losing in a rematch to the eventual champion Kansas City Chiefs.
After the season that Joe Burrow capped his collegiate career off with at LSU, many people expected him to become a star at the next level. The Bengals certainly did, otherwise, they would have used their No. 1 pick on someone else.
The only person who seemingly didn’t see the potential in Joe Burrow was his former college head coach, Urban Meyer. Meyer was coaching at Ohio State, where Joe Burrow spent the first three seasons of his college career before transferring to LSU.
While at Ohio State, he was beaten out by Cardale Jones and J.T. Barett. With Dwayne Haskins also waiting in the wings, he opted to transfer. It was a good idea on his part, as Meyer wasn’t very high on him as a player.
According to MLFootball on Twitter, Meyer told Joe Burrow that he was a D2 quarterback at best and didn’t possess the ability to consistently make throws. During his freshman year, Meyer also reportedly told Joe Burrow he ‘threw like a girl’.
That kind of assessment for a player who has turned into a star in the NFL is likely why Meyer doesn’t currently hold a head coaching position. He flamed out in one season with the Jacksonville Jaguars, who fired him after one season.
They are lucky that they did, because their No. 1 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, Trevor Lawrence, has blossomed under Doug Pederson. Lawrence is one of the young quarterbacks that Joe Burrow will be competing with for years to come in the AFC.
