How Joe Burrow elevated his game and the Bengals offense with 2 improvements

CINCINNATI — The play in the fourth quarter against the Los Angeles Chargers unfolded with a series of impossible moments created by Joe Burrow.

First, safety Derwin James Jr. came off the edge as a free blitzer with a clean shot. Burrow ducked forward, yanked himself off the tackle attempt at his shoulder pads and accelerated forward. Meanwhile, his redirection off the hit allowed him to juke defensive tackle Otito Ogbonnia, who came unblocked during the pocket collapse chaos. In the process of Ogbonnia going to the ground in the chase, linebacker Bud Dupree, accelerating to the blind side, tripped over him.

That freed Burrow to flush forward and work down the line of scrimmage, with running back Chase Brown narrowly sprinting away from linebacker Daiyan Henley but approaching zone linebacker Alohi Gilman. Burrow ripped a 13-yard bullet on the run between them, forcing an instant reaction from Brown to snag the ball before it ricocheted off his face mask.

“Oh, yeah, add that one to the list,” quarterbacks coach Brad Kragthorpe said.

Joe Burrow’s not going to get any MVP consideration because of his team’s record. But he’s playing unreal football right now. pic.twitter.com/p9y7XZU1xN

— Bill Barnwell (@billbarnwell) November 20, 2024

This came only plays before Burrow discarded a clean sack attempt from Joey Bosa, snaked forward and jump-passed over one defender while being driven to the ground by Dupree from behind. All that for another completion to Brown, feathering the ball gently over Henley.

The plays are becoming too many to track when discussing how Burrow unlocked a new level in an already dominant arsenal.

After all, Burrow led the NFL in completions, attempts, yards and QBR entering this past weekend. Remembering every example of a season’s worth of magic he has created to keep the Cincinnati Bengals afloat is becoming impossible.

“The pocket movement and the pressure awareness and his ability to decisively work through progressions and find completions, it feels like it has gone a level up this year,” Kragthorpe said. “Which is crazy to say.”

Indeed, but crazy fits right in with this Bengals season. Burrow entered the league with his pocket awareness and movement viewed in the scouting world as his superpower. He did nothing to dispel that in his first three seasons.

Though his game often drew comparisons to Drew Brees and Tom Brady, he has started playing more like Josh Allen and prime-Ben Roethlisberger to find new heights.

He leads the NFL in passing yards while under pressure with 919. The next closest is Kirk Cousins at 827, via Pro Football Focus. Nobody else has more than 775.

Offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher calls it “playing downhill.” Spinning off and escaping behind the rush to the outside can work and create plays but brings out the negative too often. Burrow is consistently turning near-sacks into big plays with his arm and legs as he attacks forward and avoids a higher rate of rushers.

He has gradually worked up the list each year, going from 39th out of 40 qualifiers in the rate of pressures that turn into sacks in 2021 to ranking top-10 in the number now, grading out as the second best in the league while under pressure (PFF).

Or, in simpler terms, his magic factor has never been higher.

“I think he is as good as he has ever been, maybe even better,” Pitcher said. “He feels the lanes when they present. At times when you get upfield rush from internal gaps, it’s really your only avenue of escape. He feels that. He does a good job with his ball security. He steps into those spaces aggressively, and he’s made a lot of plays that way. The savviness, the awareness, the pocket presence are all things that he intuitively has. I think the strength plays into it, too.”

All anybody could talk about before the season regarding Burrow was his recovery from last year’s season-ending wrist injury, and understandably so.

The injury came with complications and concerns. It had Burrow wondering aloud about his “football mortality” as he worked through the rehab process and questions about whether he’d ever be the same as his former self.

Everyone wanted to talk about Burrow’s wrist, but the quarterback preferred to talk about the rest of his body. Specifically, the “10- to 15-ish” pounds of muscle he added in an attempt to find another level of durability and power in his game.

Now entering the final six weeks of a season that has taken its toll on everyone in the building, Burrow chief among them, nobody is talking about the wrist anymore. But it’s hard not to talk about his strength. It’s chief among his ability to climb the pocket, make more off-platform throws and withstand the punishment necessary to take over games.

“I think I do a great job of getting the ball out quickly when I have to, but there’s certain situations in certain games that you’re going to have to hang in there and make plays and run around and hold the ball a little longer, trying to make those plays down the field,” Burrow said. “If it’s there early, I’m going to take it, but when we’re pushing the ball down the field, if I feel like I can take it, you get out and try to make a play, and that’s what I’m going to do. I think we’re at that point in the season where that’s needed. I might (have had) a little different mindset the first five games. But where we are right now, I think that’s how I’m gonna have to play it.”

The staff is playing it that way, having Burrow throw 106 times over the past two games.

Which leads us back to the wrist conversation. You know, the one nobody is having anymore? That’s because, one week at a time, one throw at a time, he has made everyone forget. It wasn’t that long ago that everyone was dissecting his water-bottle-holding technique and questioning the RPMs on his passes.

Even he told his receivers to expect some “wobblers” early in the season. What’s interesting about his development this year is that through Next Gen Stats’ average ball speed measurement, we can spot the exact moment when Burrow found the power and confidence in his wrist again.

In Week 5 against the Baltimore Ravens, everything changed.

Burrow’s ball speed at all levels of the field, specifically the intermediate, increased dramatically as his confidence grew. His speeds are still a tick below his career averages, but that doesn’t seem to matter much when it comes to production.

He’s now up to 27 touchdowns against just four interceptions. His 6.3-to-1 ratio runs neck and neck with Lamar Jackson for the best in the league and lives in a stratosphere posted only in MVP seasons by the likes of Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady and Jackson.

“He’s always taken good care of the football,” Pitcher said. “I think he’s taken unbelievable care of the football this year. Maybe that’s an area where he has gone from excellent to whatever the next descriptor is. But he’s playing great football.”

Great football hasn’t proved good enough. That doesn’t discount the level of play and adversity he has overcome. He might not end up in the MVP conversation because of the defense and special teams offsetting masterful performances too often.

The Bengals will plod toward the latest must-win game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, undoubtedly needing Burrow’s strength and pocket movement to carry them again. The plays will continue piling up.

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(Photo: Sam Greene / Imagn Images)