New Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle Breiden Fehoko might not have a lot of familiarity with the eastern part of the United States as a Hawaii native who played at Texas Tech and LSU before signing with the Los Angeles Chargers. But he does know a little something about the AFC North. Especially the Cincinnati Bengals and their offensive superstars.
He was teammates with quarterback Joe Burrow and wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase while all were at LSU together. They had a good relationship as teammates. But he’d love to put them on their backsides—and he’s actually looking forward more to an opportunity at the receiver than the quarterback.
“I’m really looking for Ja’Marr on a smoke screen”, he said on the Steel Here podcast last week with Kevin Adams and Jersey Jerry. “I know Cincy loves to get Ja’Marr [out there]. Ja’Marr talks a lot of shit, excuse my language. Since his early days at LSU, Ja’Marr came in as a freshman, and he’s New Orleans, so them boys from New Orleans, they’re gonna talk shit. Even if they lose a rep, they’re still gonna talk shit”.
Burrow and Chase had one of the most outstanding connections in college football history during LSU’s stellar undefeated championship season in 2019. Burrow threw for 5,671 yards with 60 touchdowns, while Chase caught 85 passes for 1,785 yards and 20 touchdowns.
It’s no wonder neither made it out of the top five of their respective draft classes, the Bengals taking Burrow first overall in 2020 and then landing Chase at five a year later. Chase caught 81 passes for 1,455 yards and 13 touchdowns as a rookie. Burrow is already in the conversation for the best quarterback in the league.
“Those two are my dudes—not anymore though on the field. AFC North rivals now”, Fehoko said of the duo. “I’m excited. I’m 1-0 against Joe in the league. We put a whooping on their ass when I was in LA when we played in Cincy two years ago so I’m excited to keep that tradition going”.
Burrow is actually 0-2 against the Chargers, but Fehoko was not active for the first game—in fact, the first game for both in their NFL careers. Burrow was the Bengals’ starting quarterback, Fehoko a member of Los Angeles’ practice squad.
But the Chargers visited Paul Brown Stadium in 2021 and laid something of a whooping on the Bengals. It was 24-0 before Cincinnati even got on the board. To their credit, the Bengals made it interesting by scoring 22 unanswered points, but then Los Angeles pulled away for a final score of 41-22.
Burrow threw two interceptions and was sacked six times, losing a fumble on top of that. Fehoko was on the field for that game, making two tackles against the run. The lopsided score kept the home team passing, which meant the nose tackle was on the sideline for much of the game.
