In each of the last two seasons, Joe Burrow had orchestrated a Cincinnati Bengals offense that could win with both a barrage of big plays and long drives. It was this well-oiled machine that was mostly responsible for carrying Cincinnati to back-to-back AFC Championship appearances, one of which where they upset the heavily favored Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium. Give Lou Amarumo and the Bengals D their flowers too, because they've more than held up their end of the bargain, but ultimately, the Bengals will go where Joe Burrow leads them.
It was just five weeks ago that Burrow and the Bengals were 1-3 and searching for answers to questions that in the previous two seasons, they hadn't even needed to consider. They were dead to rights, in the midst of a season from hell that began with a Joe Burrow calf injury in training camp. However, since they were written off by the masses in the aftermath of a pitiful 27-3 blowout loss to the Tennessee Titans, the Bengals have returned to form and in five weeks time, re-established themselves as the class of the AFC. The difference, as you'd expect, has been Burrow, who has been scorching hot in Cincinnati's four-game winning streak.
In those four wins (at Arizona, home for Seattle, at San Francisco, and home against Buffalo), Burrow has completed nearly 76% of his passes while throwing for 1,131 yards, 10 touchdowns, and only two interceptions. It's been enough to launch Burrow back into the thick of the NFL MVP race, where he currently has the fifth-best odds on the board. But the MVP isn't Burrow's top priority (getting a good night of sleep is).
“Everything has to go right for you to win that award,” Burrow said on Wednesday, via Kelsey Conway of the Cincinnati Enquirer. “You usually have to have the best record. A lot of things play into it. I'd like to win one eventually. But it's not No. 1 on my list for sure.”
Burrow finished fourth in MVP voting last year and if he were to win one, he would become only the eighth player to win the Heisman Trophy AND an NFL MVP, joining Paul Hornung, O.J. Simpson, Earl Campbell, Marcus Allen, Barry Sanders, Cam Newton, and Lamar Jackson.