For the past months, the likes of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and third-year Philadelphia Eagles passer Jalen Hurts have been among the regulars in the 2022 NFL MVP conversation. As of late, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow has been making a strong case to also be in the discussion for the sport’s most prestigious individual honor.
Burrow guided the Bengals to a 27-24 home win against the Chiefs in Week 13 for the team’s fourth straight victory. The third-year passer anchored five scoring drives on the day, with two coming in the fourth quarter. In the end, his 8-yard passing touchdown to Chris Evans in the fourth quarter was all that Cincinnati needed to win the AFC title game rematch over Kansas City.
Many are now backing Burrow to be the top contender for this year’s NFL MVP honor, including Bengals head coach Zac Taylor. When asked during his postgame press conference whether Burrow is playing at an MVP-caliber level, Taylor took some time to laud the versatile quarterback.
“Absolutely,” Taylor said. “He’s playing at the level we need for him to lead us to be confident that we can go win every game we play.
“So whatever those conversations are like, there’s no doubt. I’ve said it before, I wouldn’t trade him for anybody in the world.”
Taylor also gave credit to the offensive line for helping to regularly give Burrow a good amount of time in the pocket to anchor the offense.
“But you've got to start with the offensive line first,” Taylor said. “They gave him a lot of time to be able to get a chance to find those guys open and make the plays with his feet, with his arm. I thought our offensive line played their tails off. That's a really good front. They did a good job holding them at bay.
“They did a great job getting us started in the run game and Joe does what Joe does. He had about 30.5 or 31 or 32, or whatever it was. Just when we needed somebody to step up, Joe made a play.”
Burrow has now recorded 10 touchdown passes in Cincinnati's last five games.
The AFC North side is now set for a meeting with the Cleveland Browns coming up in Week 14.
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