Buy or sell: Rumors swirling around the 2020 NFL Draft
Joe Burrow will force his way out of Cincinnati: Sell
Let’s get one thing straight. Eli Manning is NFL royalty, and played three very good seasons of football, at Ole Miss. John Elway was viewed as the greatest draft prospect of all time, and had playing baseball, for the New York Yankees, as real leverage. None of those qualities apply to LSU Quarterback, Joe Burrow.
Joe Burrow’s numbers this season were otherworldly, and he was the best player in college football. He was rightfully given the Heisman Trophy, but it would be foolish to say he has leverage because he is viewed as QB1 in 2020. Joe Burrow had to wait until his fifth year in college to be a great Quarterback. LSU had arguably the best weapons in the country at Burrow’s disposal. Offensive mastermind Joe Brady was hired by an NFL franchise after one season at LSU.
This doesn’t mean that Burrow isn’t an NFL Quarterback. It simply means that the idea of Joe Burrow having all this leverage is misguided. Surely, we all hope that this was a narrative created by the media, and not something Burrow is actually considering. If someone in his corner is telling him that he has Eli Manning and John Elway type of leverage, then this young man us being given false information.
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Another reason why Burrow will not be telling Cincinnati that he won’t play for them is the franchise itself. The Bengals may be slightly dysfunctional and in a down period, but this is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a doormat franchise. They’ve been to the postseason five times this decade, in a division with the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the Baltimore Ravens. Burrow is going to a much better situation than Kyler Murray, Baker Mayfield, Jameis Winston, and Jared Goff went to at the time of their drafts.