Joe Burrow had an up and down rookie season in 2020 with the Cincinnati Bengals, which culminated in a Week 11 season-ending ACL tear. Entering year two, expectations for Burow should be sky high after the Bengals upgraded their wide receiver corps. The main addition this off-season was drafting Ja’Marr Chase fifth overall in this year’s NFL Draft. He is currently ranked as the 12th best quarterback on ESPN, but should those who partake in fantasy football draft Joe Burrow this year? Here is a Joe Burrow fantasy profile.
Joe Burrow Fantasy Outlook for 2021
The Good
There is an argument to be made that Burrow will breakout this year. First, Burrow is great at taking care of the football. He was thrown into one of the most difficult situations last season. Being on a team that is constantly trailing and has a bad offensive line is not a recipe for success. But even under those circumstances, Burrow was not a turnover machine. He was one of two quarterbacks last season to throw less than 10 interceptions while finishing in the top ten in total times sacked. While Burrow only played in 10 of 16 games last year, he still finished with 404 pass attempts on the season, so the volume is there. He has also shown rushing upside, as he rushed for three touchdowns last season in only ten games. Any time a quarterback has a rushing component to his game that makes him that much more valuable in fantasy.
The Bad
After passing on an offensive lineman with their first-round pick, Burrow will still have the same poor pass protection as last year. Considering his rookie year ended with a season-ending knee injury, this is concerning. He finished his rookie year with a 6.7 yards per attempt average, which was 25th in the league. This was partially due to not having enough time to throw downfield but also due to his bad accuracy on deep throws. On throws more than 20 yards downfield last season, Burrow completed only nine of 48 attempts. The only two quarterbacks that were worse than him were Dwayne Haskins and Mitchell Trubisky. His touchdown percentage last year, which compares the number of passing touchdowns per pass attempt, was also one of the worst in the league last season at 3.2 percent.
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The Verdict
Joe Burrow will once again have no shortage of pass attempts in 2021. The massive volume should help his passing statistics. Another positive sign has been him showing some improvement in some of his areas of weakness this off-season. For example, in an interview with Sports Illustrated, he said that he has been working on his deep ball. Burrow’s ranking on ESPN is fair. People who play fantasy football want to know which quarterback who was drafted late will put up numbers. When looking at the quarterbacks ranked between 10 and 15, Burow has the best chance. He should be taken over quarterbacks such as Matt Ryan and Daniel Jones but isn’t in the tier of Ryan Tannehill, Justin Herbert, or Russell Wilson. Still young and with plenty of upside, Burrow is worth drafting once the top ten quarterbacks have been drafted.
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