When Joe Burrow yelled out in pain and went down grabbing his knee in the Super Bowl following a sack and then limped off the field…and then returned to try and lead his team to a fourth quarter Super Bowl comeback, that scene was really a short summary of his entire NFL career. Burrow has been producing more hits than Dr. Dre on the field, but he’s also taken more “hits” than Snoop Dogg before a Super Bowl performance.
The “Get Up” crew praised Burrow’s resiliency but cautioned that the hits he is taking now will eventually add up if the Cincinnati Bengals don’t fix their offensive line woes.
Co-host Dan Orlovsky went as far as to suggest that Burrow is on the worst career trajectory imaginable when it comes to longevity.
“I was incredibly impressed with him. He right now is on the Andrew Luck track and that concerns me, candidly. You watch this kid get beat up game after game after game after game. That will not last in this league, and he is a phenomenal…they should win multiple Super Bowls with that kid, OK. If they don’t get it (O-Line) fixed this offseason, he’s on track to become the next Andrew Luck”
The Sacks Add Up
Burrow was sacked an NFL-high 51 times in the regular season. Entering the Super Bowl, he was already sacked 12 times in the playoffs.
NFL analyst Domonique Foxworth was adamant about the fact that Burrow couldn’t win the Super Bowl getting sacked nine times like he did against the Tennessee Titans.
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“We’ve seen Joe Burrow way too many times on the ground screaming,” Foxworth said.
He was right as Burrow was sacked seven times in the Super Bowl LVI loss to the LA Rams, tying a Super Bowl record. His 19 total playoff sacks also set an NFL postseason record. And that brought his total number of sacks for the 2021 regular season and postseason to 70, the third-most in NFL history.
According to ProFootballTalk, only David Carr, who was sacked 76 times in 2002, and Randall Cunningham, who was sacked 72 times in 1986, have been sacked more than Burrow in one season. Given that Burrow’s rookie season ended with a torn ACL, 70 sacks in his second season have to be a concern for the Bengals.
Don’t Jinx Us
But calling him the next Andrew Luck is the last thing Burrow and Bengals fans want to hear after the second-year quarterback captured the hearts of NFL Nation with his gritty, clutch play and Tom Bradyesque command and confidence.
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Joe Cool just led the Bengals to the franchise’s first Super Bowl since 1988, when Boomer Esiason was gunslinging in Ohio, and now Orlovsky wants to curse him with the Andrew Luck tag?
The Quick Rise & Fall Of Andrew Luck
Luck was drafted No. 1 overall in 2012, the same season RG3 and Russell Wilson were chosen. Luck was considered a generational talent who brought the respect back to Indianapolis following Peyton Manning’s exit. Luck went 11-5 and made the playoffs his first three seasons but took an excruciating amount of punishment, playing in just 22 games over the next three seasons
Luck’s career sadly ended with him retiring in his prime in August 2019 during the second half of a preseason game between the Colts and the Chicago Bears.
Twitter destroyed him, and the fans inside Lucas Oil Stadium booed him as he walked off the field for the last time after the game.
“It hurt. I’ll be honest. It hurt,” Luck said then.
Via the Shadow League:
“The man who was the face of an NFL franchise had decided to give up the game at 29. Luck was coming off a Pro Bowl season in which he was the AP Comeback Player of the Year. Last season he threw for 4,593 yards and 39 touchdowns and completed 67.3% of his passes with a quarterback rating of 69.6.
But Luck was tired.
He missed nine games back in 2015 and was out for all of the 2017 season. Throughout his NFL career, he’d dealt with torn cartilage in two ribs, a partially torn abdomen, a lacerated kidney, concussions, a torn labrum in his throwing shoulder, and was trying to work his way back from a calf/ankle injury that had hindered him this preseason.”
It was a shocking dose of reality for NFL fans. Sometimes quarterbacks can get hit too much. The Colts refused to build an offensive line that could protect Luck, so he tapped out. He lost the taste for contact and competition. Being a battering ram was not his cup of tea, and who could blame him. Luck was as fearless on the field as he was talented.
“For the last four years or so, I’ve been in this cycle of injury, pain, rehab – injury, pain, rehab – and it’s been unceasing, unrelenting, both in-season and offseason,” Luck explained. “And I felt stuck in it, and the only way I see out is to no longer play football. It’s taken my joy of this game away.”
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Of course, Burrow doesn’t want to go out like Luck, but that’s not totally up to him. The Bengals have some cap space and are returning their key players, so they have to enhance the O-Line and preserve the lifeline of their quarterback. That’s up to the executives who assess and acquire the talent needed to stay competitive.
Let’s hope the Bengals front office doesn’t fail him like the Colts did Luck. Let’s also not wish that outcome on his career a few days after he led his team to the Super Bowl in his first full season as starter.
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