Joe Burrow: “I’m Ready to Compete in the NFL”

The No.1 pick from the last night’s draft, Joe Burrow, declared himself ready to take on all the challenges which come out his way in the NFL.

As expected, the Cincinnati Bengals drafted Burrow first, completing what everyone predicted a long time ago. Now, even though first picks are usually becoming the starters in their franchises, Burrow is aware that he has to work hard in order to earn the trust of the head coach Zac Taylor.

“That’s exactly how I expect to do it as well,” Burrow said. “I’m going to come in and compete and try to be the best player I can be…I was super-focusing on getting myself better as a player, and this is just the next step.”

Hold. That. Tiger. 🐅 pic.twitter.com/LAmB3udaSL

— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) April 24, 2020

Many Bengals fans were afraid of Burrow’s reaction once it became clear that their franchise is going to pick first. They believed that the youngster wouldn’t be pleased with the possibility of ending in Cincinnati, who was arguably the worst team in the NFL last year, and also they looked like the most dysfunctional one too.

With the arrival of Burrow, that is all expected to change. Some think that it would take time to see the team becoming a playoff contender, while others believe in express success. Anyway, the expectations from the former LSU star are very high.

“We selected him because we know he’s going to be able to handle all of that,” Cinci’s head coach Zac Taylor said. “It’s just a matter of accumulating those reps as quickly as he can.”

Taylor, who was a quarterback at the Nebraska college, and was with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers during 2007, will for sure know how to shape and improve Burrow’s incredible talent. Taylor himself is the young in this business, but knows to look at things from a perspective of QB.

Burrow’s statement about being ready to fight for his place in the team and the NFL also means that he didn’t forget about the Bengals’ starting QB and his future competitor Andy Dalton. The 32-year old is in the last year of his contract and will earn $17.7 million. However, that doesn’t mean that he won’t be motivated to show everyone that he still has what it takes to be a starter and the leader.

Dalton is a three-time Pro Bowl, and will have time for one more contract following this season. It is why he won’t be keen on going down without a fight. No doubt, he is going to mentor Burrow in some areas, but on the other side, Dalton will try to push him aside when talking about the job place.

Cincinnati played for five straight seasons in the playoffs but never went beyond the Wild Card round, and those were the initial years of Dalton’s career. Yet, over the past four campaigns, the Bengals never managed to go above .500, and they were far away from the playoffs.

It was the signal for the board to change many things among them to start considering an entirely new roster, and a new leader. Burrow’s magnificent year and his talent were something which couldn’t be passed over, and it appears that the collateral damage in all this was Dalton.