Joe Burrow's stats from last year...

[Fan_in_Kettering]

I’m not worried at all about Joe Burrow’s statistics from 2020. It’s not even a blip on my radar screen. With the horrible offensive line, awful play calling, and a stupid level of pass heavy offense — and let’s not forget Joe’s season was cut short by injury — 2020 was a statistical outlier. Trying to make inferences from Joe Burrow’s 2020 performance can’t be done with any accuracy.

To paraphrase Bill Belichick, “I’m on to 2021.”

Year Two for Joe Burrow will be crucial. Unfortunately he’s still rehabbing from last season and today Tyler Boyd said Joe is definitely not 100%. That’s okay. The truth is powerful.

With Joe’s repaired knee he is going to be even less mobile than before which puts even more pressure on the offensive line. Either he gets the ball out faster on quick slants or he’s going to turn into a crash test dummy. I don’t want this to happen to Joe in particular nor to the Bengals in general because he was drafted to pass downfield — albeit not 50+ attempts per game.

Either way, Cincinnati is going to have to run the ball more and do so effectively. Once again it comes down to the offensive linemen who have underwhelmed at run blocking since 2016.