Bengals: 5 bold predictions for Joe Burrow as he preps for his debut

Burrow will end as a top ten quarterback

It is very difficult for rookie quarterbacks to end their first season and be looked at as one of the best players in the league, but that is exactly what Burrow is going to do as he begins his tenure in Cincinnati.

In 2019, the 10th rated quarterback according to Total QBR was Derek Carr, who had a 63.7 score. Carr’s successful rating can be contributed to his 4,054 passing yards, 21 touchdowns to only 8 interceptions, and completing 70.4% of his passes. Burrow would need to have similar numbers if he wants to end up inside the top ten.

Already discussed is how Burrow could end up with over 30 passing touchdowns, which will greatly exceed Carr’s total from a year ago. As far as how many yards to expect, a baseline of what both Murray and Mayfield did during their rookie years was right around 3,700 yards. While this would be short of Carr’s production, it is close enough to still make Burrow very competitive. There is also a good chance that with so many weapons on offense, Burrow exceeds this amount for Cincinnati.

The biggest question mark that he will have to answer is limiting his interceptions and completing a high percentage of his throws. These areas tend to be the hardest for rookies as they adjust to the speed of the NFL and have to learn to make better decisions, quicker than they did in college.

Burrow showed an incredible talent his senior year at minimizing mistakes and putting the ball in a place where only his receivers could make a play. That should continue and allow Burrow to end as one of the best quarterbacks in the league.