Joe Burrow was taken with the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft by the Cincinnati Bengals and he carries heavy expectations into his rookie season. While he hasn't logged a single snap in the NFL yet, former NFL quarterback Chris Simms compared Burrow to Peyton Manning.

In his quarterback rankings on NBC Sports, Simms listed Burrow at No. 26 and explained his reasoning:

“I know he hasn’t played a down in the NFL – OK. I’m still real confident that he's going to be successful in Year 1 and be ready to go,” Simms said of Burrow. “It was one of the cleanest films I ever saw of a quarterback coming out of the draft since I've been involved in evaluating players and draft talk and all of that.

There's really not a weakness to his game. He looks like his ceiling could be Peyton Manning. He's that type of guy as far as being able to process information, his accuracy, his ability to look at one side of the field and flip to the other and read and react in a proper manner. … For a team that won the national championship last year, his pass protection stunk. He was a master Jedi in the pocket. He really was. He's as good as I've ever seen a college quarterback in the pocket come out in my lifetime. That's how good he is.”

Coming into the NFL, Burrow is coming off of a truly historic season at LSU. The confident signal-caller would throw for 5,671 yards, 60 touchdowns, and six interceptions.

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GM Duke Tobin in the middle, Rome Odunze, T'Vondre Sweat, Brandon Coleman around him, and Cincinnati Bengals in the background.

Enzo Flojo ·

However, despite his stellar senior season, it's preemptive to believe that Burrow can reach the level of Manning. Manning is a two-time Super Bowl winner that will unquestionably be a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 2021.

There's nothing wrong with believing that Burrow is going to help turnaround a Bengals franchise that hasn't won a playoff game since 1990. Still, it's probably worth tempering expectations on the rookie passer due to the situation he's currently stepping in to.