Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow was on a tear this season that had him a notable underdog in the MVP race until the last two games of the season.
Burrow’s case has cooled slightly now that he’s played only 16 games compared to the other favorites and didn’t put up big numbers in the season finale.
Still, the writers at The Athletic made the case for every MVP candidate and ended up ranking Burrow third.
These were a couple of the most notable comments:
— He’s the ultimate “pick your poison” QB who will beat teams with the long ball, checkdowns, back-shoulder passes, scrambles or whatever vulnerability a defense shows. And he just led the Bengals through a second-half-of-the-season gantlet with flying colors. Even without Ja’Marr Chase and Joe Mixon for multiple weeks, he just kept winning. — Dave Niinemets, NFL senior editor
— You know how sometimes after the regular season, we all decide on the MVP, and then once the playoffs begin, we realize we were actually wrong? Burrow could be that guy. — Doug Haller, senior writer
Every writeup is worth a look and the rankings are probably right — Burrow likely finishes behind Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts.
But as Burrow has said recently, he’ll take a Super Bowl win over things like individual awards and Pro Bowl nods. He certainly put his team in position for that, winning eight in a row to close the season.
