The Cincinnati Bengals' 2025 season might not officially be over but they're not making the playoffs this year. That's not even the headline after a shutout loss to the Ravens though. The headline still surrounds Joe Burrow's comments he made ahead of the Ravens game where it sounded like he wasn't enjoying himself anymore.
"If I want to keep doing this, I have to have fun doing this. I have been through a lot. If it's not fun, then what am I doing it for? That is the mind set I am trying to bring to the table."
Burrow's comments were hard to ignore and Dan Patrick has repeatedly referred to them as being "dark". He's not wrong either. Patrick had former NFL quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III on his show on Wednesday and asked Griffin to convince Bengals fans they shouldn't be worried about their star quarterback.
"Oh, no, they should be. Anytime a guy that's that competitive, the one who was smoking cigars, and changed his last name on the back of the back of his jersey at LSU to [Burreaux]. When that guy comes out and says, 'Man, I don't know if I love this anymore. Like, I got to find the joy.' That's a problem," Griffin said on The Dan Patrick Show. "And it's also weird because I've heard some people compare it to the Carson Palmer situation. Whereas Carson, I believe as he had T.O. and Ocho and he was just like, 'Yeah... it's kind of tough to deal with these guys and what's going on and building around me'. Joe's got his guys."
Bengals fans should be worried after RG3’s blunt Joe Burrow take
This is sound logic from RG3. Burrow has never backed down from showing what a warrior he is so it is concerning to hear him say he's not finding joy in the game he's always loved so much. His point about Carson Palmer is interesting because, as Griffin mentioned, Palmer was dealing with some big personalties toward the end of his Bengals career while Burrow has the exact guys he wants to have by his side.
Dan Patrick then said he believes this is more like an Andrew Luck situation than a Carson Palmer one due to the bad offensive line early in his career. He also pointed out how Luck was 29 when he stepped away from football and Burrow is 29 years old now. Griffin then played off of that with a brutally honest response.
"When you go out there and you throw for a gazillion touchdowns and 7,000 yards and you still lose and it's like not close, like you're not close to making the playoffs and you're doing that year after year after year and then you're getting hurt year after year after year. That's where I think Joe Burrow is kind of burning himself out... Like, he's made enough money, which I understood why Andrew [Luck] made the decision that he made... [Luck]'s like, 'You know what? I've taken care of my family. I've enjoyed this game for a long time. I'm good.' And I could understand why Joe Burrow would be in that position," Griffin said. "But I think if you're any of those guys on that team... I'm trying to convince him like, 'Hey man, I know this is tough, but we need you.' And I think that's the only thing that'll get Joe Burrow back into it is the guys in that locker room, you know, really putting their arms around him and say, 'We got your back, man.'"
It's not fun for Bengals fans to have to hear all of this talk about Burrow and how he might not be enjoying himself anymore but the team only has themselves to blame for it. The Bengals are simply not good enough to compete for championships and they're wasting Burrow's prime. It sucks to know Burrow feels this way and hopefully, he can find the joy in the sport again.