With yet another season-ending injury, is the Bengals’ Joe Burrow becoming this generation’s Andrew Luck? While injuries didn’t force Luck to retire, he did choose to retire due to the injuries he sustained. And as you might recall, he took people by surprise, announcing his retirement in late August.
I’m not saying that Burrow is going to suddenly retire, but are the Bengals wasting his career? Who exactly is to blame for his repeated injuries, if anybody? When it comes down to it, generally, he hasn’t suffered major injuries on typical, crushing hits. With his turf toe injury, he has now suffered multiple very unusual injuries for quarterbacks.
“Honestly, it should impact all of the NFL”, NFL analyst Dan Orlovsky said. “It feels like Joe Burrow is trending towards becoming this generation’s Andrew Luck, in a way. The conversation around Andrew was all the hits, and threw those first five or six seasons, … look how much they’re getting hit”.
During Orlovsky’s appearance, they showed a graphic of the hits Joe Burrow and Andrew Luck have taken. Through six seasons, Luck sustained 828 “contacts” with a 21-percent contact rate. He took 174 sacks, with a 28-percent pressure rate. Burrow, in comparison, has 634 contacts, a 20-percent contact rate, 201 sacks, and 27-percent pressure rate.
It’s worth noting that Burrow will have missed a lot more time through his first six seasons, even if he returns this year. He has played in 71 games, while Luck played in 86. They had very similar rates of contacts and pressures, though, which is concerning.
Luck also suffered repeated injuries, as Burrow has. The Bengals have tried more to invest in the offensive line, but many of their attempts have failed. This offseason, they didn’t do as much as they could do, but instead, they prioritized retaining WR Tee Higgins.
Joe Burrow is partly to blame, because this is the offense that he wants. He wants to throw the ball, and he wants five eligibles to make use of his elite processing speed. By and large, he does his part to get the ball out quickly. But when he doesn’t, or pressure develops quickly, he gets in trouble.
And Burrow and the Bengals throw the ball as much as anybody—by design. After all, when you have Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, and Higgins, it’s kind of the only option. They don’t even have much of a running game, which I’m sure Jake Browning is thrilled about.
But is Joe Burrow becoming the next Andrew Luck—whatever that means? In terms of a major talent at quarterback repeatedly suffering hits and injuries, he’s already there. But he can still write a different ending to his story. Luck chose to tap out and not risk further injury, living a full life. He’s now happy coaching college football. Burrow still wants to win a Super Bowl. But can the Bengals keep him upright long enough to do so?
