After three weeks of football, the Cincinnati Bengals are 1-2 and Joe Burrow has been struggling while dealing with his calf injury from the preseason that he reaggravated in Week 2 against the Baltimore Ravens.
Derrik Klassen of the 33rd Team ranked all 32 current starting quarterbacks in the league going into Week 4, and Burrow fell out of the top five, where he has been ranked for a while.
Buy Bengals TicketsHere’s what Klassen said about the Bengals quarterback:
Joe Burrow’s uncharacteristic play has gone on long enough that it’s time to start dropping him a little. We all know a healthy version of Burrow is still one of the best quarterbacks in the league, but it’s clear right now that his calf injury is hindering him. Burrow’s time-to-throw is third-lowest in the league right now, according to NextGenStats, and his average depth of target is fifth-lowest. And that’s Monday night’s game boosting those numbers slightly.
Burrow just doesn’t have the arm strength or mobility we’re used to seeing from him. He couldn’t throw the ball outside the numbers or into tight windows against the Los Angeles Rams at all. He also couldn’t get outside the pocket as a scrambler. It will be hard to keep Burrow high on this list if that continues.
Klassen has it right; the only reason Burrow’s performance has been so poor this season is because of that injury, but this is a week-by-week ranking, and after three weeks, he hasn’t been playing the standard everyone is used to seeing from the $275 million quarterback.
The longer he goes without reinjuring his leg, the more he will climb back up the leaderboards.
