Will Joe Burrow’s Return Turn Around Bengals Season? | Pat McAfee Show

Will Joe Burrow’s Return Turn Around Bengals Season? | Pat McAfee Show

Joe Burrow, they have opened his return for designation play window, which is four weeks. He’s back off of IR. Remember Jason Glazer a couple days ago said that he was aiming for Thanksgivingish. Obviously, this is before that even though Thanksgiving will fall into his return window time and we would like to let Joe Burrow know. We’re pumped for you, bud. Joey B being back is great for the NFL. And not that Joey Flack didn’t do his thing, but obviously this team goes through Joe Burrow. Debbut, what are your thoughts on Joey B getting back in the facility and maybe playing a little football? I just love the message this sends to the organization, the fans and his teammates that, you know, he’s busting his ass and trying to get back uh as soon as possible. You can easily for a guy like him who, you know, has the big contract who you can say, “Hey, let me get fully fully healthy and just probably focus on next year because of how this team is constructed and how it looks like it’s going to compete down the stretch.” So, I love this for him getting back out there and competing. Uh Flaco, he did his job. He put up a bunch of points, threw for a bunch of yards. Uh, and he also took, I feel like, a lot less hits than everybody else had been taking. A lot less sacks than even Burl had been taking. So maybe Burl kind of saw saw a little bit more of that. Get the ball out quick. Take care of yourself. But defensively and the things around him have to be much better. Uh, Bengals offensive line uh, able to win anything. Uh, not good. Not good. They got to they got to get a lot better. And I think uh, Joe Burrow can make them a little bit better by following the blueprint that Flaco did. He got the ball out on time. He got the ball out quick. not trying to always steal an extra second and a half and push the ball down the field. Let’s just, hey, let’s do this, let’s do that. Let’s get it down the field a little bit, then let’s take our shots. Here’s some stats that aren’t great for the Cincinnati Bengals. It’s not just that their offensive line maybe not great at protecting, but worst scoring defenses in the Super Bowl era. That’s since 1966. That’s a long time, brother. In uh 2020, they’re giving up 32.4 points a game. That’s the Lions. Uh in 1981, the Colts were giving up 33.3 points a game. In 1966, that Giants team, boy, they sucked on defense. 35.8 points per game. In this 2025 Bengals, they’re giving up 33.3 points a game. Yeah, that’s historically ass on the defensive side. They move on from a defensive coordinator, spend all their money on the offensive side, and basically tell two defensive linemen to kick rocks before the season even starts. This is kind of what happens uh with the Cincinnati Bengals, con man. Yeah, good for Lanno. Clearly not his fault. But the toughest part for the Bengals is the teams they’ve been competing for, you know, for the Super Bowl. not not you know the division for the Super Bowl are now the wild card teams like they have to go up there’s a chance I mean we mentioned it before the show there’s a chance the wild card teams this year are the Chiefs Bills and Ravens and if you were to say that you know before the season you’d probably be you know hung as a witch but it’s one of those things where the the Bengals every single year something seems to happen to them that gives them some sort of misfortune and although it does kind of blow that they they still have a chance they’re talking about I think over the next three weeks I I believe it’s Steelers uh Patriots, Ravens. I’m not sure if that first one’s right, but if Flaco can get one of those and then Burrow can come back and run the table, there’s a huge chance they end up with 10 wins. Why not the Bengals? Do you bring him back? If if you’re the owner, do you let him play? Like I said, the owner, Mr. Brown, Mr. Brown, how much am I paying you? Yeah, we’re paying this guy. Can you get out there? Now, on that note, what you’re talking about is sound football mind. Uh if you’re Not that Mr. Brown isn’t. I’m just saying he is a frugal business sports mind. What we are saying from outside looking in, Joey Flax’s doing okay. Your team’s not gonna win a Super Bowl this year. Do you want to put Joey B who has been injured? Yeah. Multiple times, including right now. Do you want to put him back out there and potentially risk something for next season whenever you’re maybe back? Is that what you’re That’s what I’m I’m just thinking because he’s clearly your franchise. He’s one of the the best quarterbacks in had an MVP caliber uh season last year. He’s dealing with turftoe, which we know sounds, you know, not that bad, but turftoe sucks. Especially if you one hit, one step the wrong way, it can start impacting next season already. So I would depending on where the team is when he is fully fully healthy. I know he’s going to want to go, but sometimes from that top, you got to protect the player from himself at this point. So that’s that’s the only thing I’m probably thinking and considering. And in part too, it’s just one like you know what the offensive line is. You know what the defense is in. Are are you going to really throw him out there and say, “Hey Joe, if you don’t score 45 points, we’re still going to lose.” So, you kind of need to be I don’t I don’t think it’s about winning the Super Bowl. I think for them it’s like, “Hey, Joe, you’re we are our entire franchise. We paid both your wide receivers because you wanted us to. We paid you because you wanted you wanted us to.” Like, you’re our franchise and you can play. And I think in Ohio, he’s an Ohio guy, too. They’re not They don’t Hey, he’s going to want to play for He’s already showing that for And also, Bengals fans are going to want him to play because I think it’s Ohio people. And if I had to guess, I’d say ownership. Hey, how much did we pay you? Yeah, you we’re at least filling up this stadium here to get these tickets back. I’m not saying that’s the right decision. I’m just telling you in this particular case situations are situational. I don’t think there’s even a thought by anybody in that building to save this for next year. I I I don’t think so. No. If they have like a 1% 2% chance of making the playoffs and he can come back, you know, cuz like you said, they’re probably thinking, “Hey, we need to make the playoffs so we can sell the limited edition, you know, Bengals t-shirts, squeeze out as many additional shekels as we can.” And like you said, he’s going to want to play no matter what. So if I mean if they deem that he’s healthy enough and there is even like a shred of a doubt that they can make the playoffs like he’s definitely going to play. Yeah. Sorry this entire computer just crashed over here. So we’re trying to fix this thing as we’re live on air. But I think he’s going to want to play. He’s going to want to play and uh we would like to let Joey be know we appreciate doing it. Let’s stay safe. Y I told Patrick Mahomes that I told Mahomes that as soon as I saw him on Saturday. I think I’ve already said this on the show but it needs to be restated. We said it to Joey Burrow too uh whenever he came on the show. Hey, enough with you just taking these hits that you’re taking. The entire city goes as you go, brother. And it’s like Patrick M. Joey B is like I think he told us I like taking it kind of wakes me up when I get in here. It’s like well just get punched in the face before you go out there. Yeah. Let’s let’s do a controlled punch in the face so you can kind of wake up and feel tough. Uh but as we’re playing here, we need you to be healthy. Joey B started his season or his career taking huge every week. I mean, there was a shot one week where his head was dislodged from his B like his helmet was sitting outside of his shoulder pads against Philadelphia Eagles. Yeah. Fer Cox and then he bang and then he goes down and then he comes back later and leads him back to a tie. Remember they had a tie game or whatever. He went back on the field. Then there’s one down the sideline where he like lowers his shoulders, gets like bamboozled, flipped up over top. There’s one where he’s running back and forth blindsided dead. It’s like we saw in the first couple years just Joey Burrow just getting crushed, crushed, crushed. We had so much faith in him with how good he was going to be, but he couldn’t stay healthy. This one’s freak injury here. This foot one feels like a freak injury. So, I assume he’s very bummed out about it. But it’s like uh if they can’t protect him and they can’t stop anybody, should there be a question on whether or not we roll the dice on next season here with I know it’s it’s anti- football, you know, as a football player, the people in football, but as far as business goes because the money is is paid. It’s already tied up and you know who he is. Not like he has to go out here and prove himself to anybody. So, that’s just a question. But, obviously, Joe, what’s that? He’s got to prove himself to those season ticket holders because that was confirmed. What’s that? That everybody was like, “Get me out of here. I don’t want to go to the jungle ever again. This place freaking sucks.” Yeah, but when the ruler of the jungle is good, it’s a good jungle. That’s a good point. It was up there. I thought it was a cool jungle. I thought it was a cool jungle. Yeah, J, we’ve kind of been talking about it today, but Joe Burrow being designated to return off of IR. Debbuck kind of voiced the question. Do you even play Joe Burrow with how bad the O line is? With how bad the defense, actually historically bad defense, but here’s Burrow coming back off of the turf toe surgery. Um, what do you think about this? Do you think the Bengals can make a little bit of a run here if they, you know, close out, win, you know, six to seven, seven to eight for the rest of the season? I mean, I think it’s, we always talk about the same things with the Bengals. It always seems like we’re talking about the defense and the offensive line. Um, and I I’ve seen obviously the stats of what Flaco’s been able to do behind that offensive line and make it happen, but their defense just isn’t putting them in any situations. Obviously, Trey Hendrickson been out for a while. Um, but I I definitely don’t put him out there until he’s 100% healthy because that’s the guy that you want leading this thing for the very long term and you don’t want to risk I don’t I don’t think they’re at a point right now where it’s like, hey, if he’s 70%, let’s throw him out there and see what we can make happen. I think that Flaco is serviceable enough and does a good enough job that it’s not at that point. Um, but the that that’s a tough division. The Ravens are clearly on the rise again, similar to last year. their defense is turning around a very tough start into playing good ball again. Lamar’s Lamar and then the Steelers still sitting at top al albeit fragilely at the moment. Um if they’re able to go out there and get that win, keep this thing rolling, but seems like week to week they look like a different team every week. Lamar Jackson missed practice uh today, I believe, is what’s being reported. Lamar Jackson did not practice for the Baltimore Ravens on this beautiful Wednesday that we have.

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