Joe Burrow is a man thought to be able to turn the season around for the Bengals but Stephen A. Smith is not so sure here.
Smith is an analyst for ESPN and at the top tier of sports in America for many decades now and always commands some attention to his remarks.
Speaking on Burrow to ESPN Smith went into detail on him and some other bits:
“You still can’t explain a way to 0-and-3 start and then them getting their first win against the team that benched their starting quarterback after week two. I mean, that that’s on the board now. There’s only been one team since the 2000s to make the playoffs starting out 0-and-3, and that was the 2018 Houston Texans. And you can understand that because Deshaun Watson was coming off of AI reconstruction.
There have been what, three teams that have made the playoffs since we expanded to a 17-game regular season, and out of 25 teams that have started out 1-and-3, that was the 2021 Steelers, Eagles, and Patriots. Two of those teams had quarterbacks that were first-time starters, and then you had a 39-year-old Ben Roethlisberger in his final season in his career. So you can understand the slow start there.
What nobody can do is explain why the Cincinnati Bengals got out to a slow start this year. I get you bring up the years past, but Joe Burrow was hurt in training camp, didn’t play in preseason games in years past. He did both of those this year. He had Jamar Chase on the field week one, and they still lost to the New England Patriots.
They had a must-win game two weeks ago against the Washington Commanders at home and lost where Joe Burrow got outplayed by a rookie quarterback. Now, I get it. Defense optional in that game, but the Red Zone was the key difference, and Jaden Daniels was better in the Red Zone than Joe Burrow.
So all of these reasons why you keep talking about the Cincinnati Bengals being able to pull out of this nosedive just don’t pass the smell test to me. Because I told you last year when they started 1-3, 1-and-3, their season was over with. You didn’t listen then, and you’re not listening now. And understand why I’m not listening now.”
Interesting no holding anything back punditry from Smith as always.
The NFL is very competitive at the end of the day and everything can change on a game by game basis.
