Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow's birthday has arrived as of Wednesday, and he's just turned 29 years old. That's right. Joseph Lee Burrow is approaching his 30s.
Celebrating today with some of our favorite Joe moments 🎉 pic.twitter.com/R6Yg3lzQtF
— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) December 10, 2025
By this time next season, Burrow will hit that next decade of his life, and will hopefully be healthy enough to be playing meaningful December football. In the event that he's not, it'd be such a botch job by the Bengals to blow four straight years of Joe Brrr's prime without a playoff appearance.
As festive as the occasion should be, and as much as Who Dey Nation wants Burrow to celebrate and have fun, Cincinnati's brass and coaching staff should be squirming in white-hot seats.
It's getting late early for Bengals to make the most of Joe Burrow's elite quarterbacking
Look at any given move the Bengals have made in recent years to support Burrow. It hasn't been anywhere near good enough across the board.
Whether it be antagonizing the best players on the roster in tense contract negotiations, whiffing on a medley of draft picks, or not adequately bolstering areas of weakness through free agency, the franchise has set itself back to a devastating degree. Some of that collective negligence has directly led to the battering Burrow has taken, and his long-term injuries from both this year and 2023.
Although the offensive line has thankfully improved by leaps and bounds in 2025, the damage was already done when Burrow suffered a turf toe injury in Week 2. That took all the air out of a rare hot start for Cincinnati, and that 2-0 record precipitously fell to 3-8 before Burrow's grand return.
To their credit, the Bengals made the trade for Joe Flacco to keep the offense operating at a high level for a while. Unfortunately, Flacco got hurt, and when he did play his best ball, the defense failed him in notable losses to the Jets and Bears by scores of 39-38 and 47-42.
Had Cincinnati found a way to win those two games alone, the season would still be very much alive.
Then came the collapse in Buffalo on Sunday. Burrow threw two interceptions, yet played plenty well enough to win on the road against the Bills. Once again, the defense couldn't get the job done, or give him one last crack to seize victory by allowing Josh Allen to run for 18 yards on third-and-15.
Rookie linebackers Barrett Carter and Demetrius Knight Jr. have sabotaged the defense at every turn. First-round pick Shemar Stewart has been banged up all year and looked mostly awful when he did play. The defense took way too long to be even a competent unit, and just like last season, wasted a lot of great offensive performances that kept the Bengals out of the playoffs.
Cincinnati's lack of urgency is astounding. The front office is content to stick and pick in the draft. They have the occasional hit, but keep missing time and again.
Trey Hendrickson had to wait way too long to get his contract situation resolved. Right guard Dalton Risner was signed too close to the season, which directly led to a pass protection breakdown and Burrow's injury. Risner is playing great now, but why not get him in far earlier?
Nothing of consequence was done at the trade deadline to improve the team. Their two marquee free-agent additions during the initial wave were linebacker Oren Burks and nose tackle T.J. Slaton. The former can't see the field often enough due to the draft statuses of Carter and Knight, while Slaton has mostly disappointed. Not the alleged run-stopping specialist the team hoped it was getting.
So here we are again. Glaring personnel deficiencies on defense. No interior pass rush. A flat-out bad linebacker corps.
All the magic a healthy Burrow can conjure can't salvage this situation. So maybe, now that he's pushing 30, the Bengals will actually invest in the roster like a team that has an elite QB.
Not holding my breath on that. More like holding my breath and praying Burrow stays healthy, because he's a Band-Aid to cover for all of this organization's shameful shortcomings.