Joe Burrow Wins NFL Rookie of the Year

At this point, I freely admit to being one of the conductors of the Joe Burrow train. His excellence leading an LSU offense that took the country by storm was a surprise, but even moreso when you look at his makeup as a player; such drastic leaps usually come from players in the mold of a JaMarcus Russell, a prodigy of pure talent who is simply better than most of the competition.

Burrow was…not that. After leaving Ohio State and displaying average results in his first year with the Bayou Bengals, the Ohio native showed drastic improvement in his final year for all the reasons you want: improved downfield reads, incredible accuracy, pocket mobility, receiver chemistry, mastery of the offense, everything you could ask for. 5,671 yards and 60 touchdowns is somehow not a typo, and when packaged with a 76.3 completion percentage, Burrow has all the markers of a prospect who does not need to succeed on talent alone.

And even better, Burrow is not coming into a bare cupboard like your standard 1st overall pick; while the offensive line has been almost completely devoid of talent for several seasons, the same cannot be said of the talent downfield.

The return of A.J. Green will work wonders for the receiving corps, especially rookie Tee Higgins. The former Clemson Tiger grew up idolizing Green, and the two were even listed as comparisons by many draft pundits during the workout process.

Even further, as Tyler Boyd has continued to make strides over the past few years, the team has a strong mix of veteran leadership and young talent across the board. That’s not even mentioning John Ross, the 40-yard dash record holder at the NFL Combine and a player with baffling consistency issues. To go deeper down the chart, when Ross was injured last season, it was then Auden Tate who stepped up and finished as the second leading receiver on the team.

The Bengals feature a far more gifted group at the receiver position than they’ve been given credit for, and Burrow will be the one reaping the benefits. There are no issues with his arm strength, as a few pre-draft whispers claimed; his average release time and velocity were on par with Tom Brady, a player whose career has never been in question.

Burrow’s pinpoint accuracy at every yardage will be on display his entire rookie year, and given the depths he is pulling the team from, any sizable improvement should vault him to the top of most ROTY lists.