Aside from Tua Tugavailoa, Joe Burrow has had probably the most interesting collegiate career of any quarterback in this draft. Burrow won Ohio’s “Mr. Football” Award in 2014 and went to Ohio State as a four-star recruit. He redshirted his first year and backed up J.T. Barrett the next two seasons. After throwing just 39 passes in 10 games at Ohio State, Burrow graduated early and transferred to LSU.
At LSU, Burrow brought the Tigers to a Fiesta Bowl victory and the #6 ranking in the final AP Poll in his first season and an undefeated National Championship campaign in his second year. Burrow won the Heisman Trophy after throwing for 5,671 yards, 60 (!!!!!) touchdowns, and just 6 interceptions. He also had 368 rushing yards and 5 touchdowns. Now, Burrow is considered to be the consensus #1 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.
Burrow is great. The concern, though, is that he is college great. Burrow clearly excelled in last year’s offense and put up historic numbers doing it. The big drawback is that he was playing with four future NFL wide receivers, one that is projected to go in the top 20 of this year’s draft. This is definitely a situation where he made his receivers better and they made him better. But by how much? He was also aided by first year LSU offensive coach Joe Brady who mapped out the perfect collegiate offense to win in the SEC. Brady is now the offensive coordinator for the Carolina Panthers.
Burrow’s completion percentage went up by close to 19 points from 2018 to 2019, and he passed for close to 3,000 yards and 44 touchdowns more from year to year. That is an astronomical leap that may be difficult to replicate in the jump from college to the pros. I think that Burrow definitely has the potential to be a great professional quarterback, but I also think that he has the chance to be a huge bust. Either way though, as a guy who was projected to go undrafted after the 2018 season, Burrow’s got to be pretty excited to get that first NFL contract as the #1 overall pick in the draft.
Height: 6’3″
Weight: 221lbs
Arms: 30 7/8″
Hands: 9″
40-Yard Time: did not run
Potential Landing Spots: Bengals, Dolphins