Joe Burrow Press Conference – December 3

Joe Burrow Press Conference – December 3

What’s up, Joe? Hey, Joe. Have any uh thoughts on Kevin being hired at LSU? Um, I think he’s a good coach. Guess we’ll see how it goes. Those are my thoughts. Did Lane ever recruit you at any point? No. No. Could you imagine playing in college football playoff or getting ready to and your coach leaving? Um, is Miss going to make the playoff? Yeah. Yeah, that’s certainly not an ideal situation, but uh does the rest of the staff stay or do they go too? I think you let the OC loose to go be a play caller. Uh, yeah. Certainly not an ideal situation for a playoff run, that’s for sure. There’s been multiple reports out about what exactly is in your shoe that’s helping you through this injury, whether it be a metal plate. I think there’s been something else. What What is in your shoe and that’s helping you with your toe? Exactly. Carbon fiber plate and a custom orthotic. What how does that help your your toe? Well, it just can’t. The shoe can’t bend because my toe can’t go backwards right now. Still a little early for that. So, just keeps it firm and not bending it back. Is it comfortable? No. Are you wearing different cleats now than you were before? Before the injury? Yeah. Yeah. These are the ones that um I feel like give me enough space and stability to do what I need to do. Do you walk around in different shoes just like at home? Um at home I’m just barefoot, but uh yeah, I try to be in the cleats as little as possible. How did you settle on sneakers being like the swapping out and kind of how why did you figure out that was a good solution for you on the sideline? Um, well, I I take it off throughout practice every now and then just to to let it breathe and let it relax a little bit. And these are what I put on, so figured I’d just keep it the same. The weather, obviously, it was cold in Baltimore, but it’s supposed to be like really cold in Buffalo. Does that impact the shoe or and what’s in it and your toe at all or not? Really? No, it shouldn’t. How difficult was it to get used to the the insert? Uh, it was certainly a process to figure out what worked best for me and what was most comfortable and at the same time safe. Um, but we we worked through that and a lot of different people were involved and we got the right stuff in there. Will you be wearing it? You know, have any idea? um for sure the rest of this year and potent probably going forward, but we’ll see. When you look at the tape, uh how does it affect your mechanics? I don’t think that the injury affects my mechanics at all. What you think of, you know, when you watch the tape and how you threw it, what’ you think after being out for 70 days? Yeah, I thought I did some good things. Uh I think second half I was pretty lights out. Um really last half of the first half too. The first couple drives um missed some that I normally hit. Um but when when your line protects like that, you get back into the groove pretty quickly. On the day of surgery, if I had told you you’d be back two games out with five to go, you have signed up for for that scenario. Yeah, of course. You know, we’re we got everything in front of us. We just got to go take care of business. your touchdown throw to Andre. What do you love kind of about the pre- snap puzzle that you went through before the snap there? You got everything set and then it all worked out. Yeah, it was a big time pickup up front. That’s uh they provide some challenging looks as a defense protection wise. Uh that’s probably the most challenging look that they present. Um and O line knocked it out. Drew was part of that. Saj was part of that. And then great read by Dre taking the middle. Not just taking the middle, but um noticing that they didn’t have a backside safety and able to to bend it a little bit to the space. So um that was an all-around great play. As you see it all move around, at what point do you know Andre is getting the ball down the field? Um, once I saw Rocoan getting out of there and the the field safety pushing to the field, I I knew I knew where I was going as long as we were both on the same page. When you look back at last year, why were you all so so able to to win when your backs were against the wall knowing you had to? What enabled y’all to to string that success together? Same way you win any game. Just discipline, winning the turnover battle, playing smart, playing physical, and going about your business each and every day trying to get better. There’s no secret formula. You just got to go through the process week to week and attack the plan with intensity and understand it. Understand it to a point that you can go out and execute it in front of the world. And that’s uh that’s what we plan to do. You haven’t played them a lot, but you’ve had success against this Bills defense when you face them. What has stood out or what has worked for you guys? They’re well coached. They make it they make it difficult. They give you a lot of different looks in the secondary. They try to make everything look the same. And you know, they got good players that typically have been there for a while. Most of their guys have been in that scheme for several years now and understand the weaknesses and the strengths of it. Um, yeah, we’ve had success against him in the past. We haven’t played him in several years. Every game is new, so look forward to going improving it. What do you remember about the feeling of playing there in the snow, you know, in the playoffs a few years ago? Yeah, it was one of my favorite games since I’ve been here, but like I said, that’s in the past. Well, we’ve we haven’t done anything in a long time against these guys, and we got to go improve it every single week. What’s relationship like with Joe Brady these days? Yeah, Joe and I go way back. I guess it’s way back at this point. Um, just like anytime there when there’s as time goes, you talk less and less, but you know, we could see each other any any time and sit and chop it up for however long we wanted to. Uh he was great for my career. We did some fun things together and we got a great relationship. So, I look forward to seeing and talking to him for sure. What’s the biggest thing you gained by being with him, especially that last year at LSU? What’s the biggest thing that you you look back and you made made the biggest impact on you? You know, bringing all the NFL concepts to to what we were doing at LSU. And, you know, fortunately, that’s my strength is being able to read and react and get the ball out quickly and finding the right guys. And that’s that’s what that offense was about. That’s what this offense is about. That’s what a lot of offenses are about in this league. And um you know we we did some special things together and worked through a lot of problems. We solved a lot of problems and that’s that’s what great players and coaches do. Um so that was a special time. After your wrist surgery, you were pretty open about how you know it didn’t always feel awesome and it was just something that you were learning how to manage. How did your toe feel on Friday? And is it similar to that where it doesn’t feel great that you’re still able to play through it? Like how what’s the difference? Oh, toe feels great. Um, like I said, the everything we have in the shoe keeps it stable and safe and that provides me confidence to to go and play the way that I need to. How much do you pay attention to playoff scenarios? What needs to happen for you guys to get in at this point? Yeah, we pay attention. I think everybody does, but it doesn’t you can pay attention to it and at the same time not let it affect anything about your business and about your day-to-day, none of that matters if we don’t go and win. You talked a lot about Payton Manning and relationship over the years. Why Why has that been a relationship that’s meant a lot to you? And kind of what’s that kind of been like as y’all have gotten older? Well, number one, he is one of the best of all time and has a lot of insight to provide. And he’s a great guy that wants to give back to the game to the younger guys, help us out. And when you have a guy that played for so long at such a high level that wants to see young players thrive and get better and be great, uh, that’s good for the game. And shame on me if I don’t take advantage of that. Is that something you hope to do down the line like whenever you’re done is to kind of kind of pass that on or pay it forward? Yeah. Yeah, of course. It’s about as emotional as I seem after the game. Seemed like this particular comeback seemed to kind of strike a coil with you. You seem to almost savor it. Maybe I’m wrong, but it seemed like kind of an older war reflective. Yeah, I just think, you know, I’ve been through a lot of these and, you know, haven’t had the chance to come back in the middle of a season like this from any of the the other ones that I’ve had. And so, this one has been special to me. Uh, you know, I worked really hard to come back and try to give myself an opportunity to get out there. Not just me. A lot of people worked hard for it. And um to be able to have a moment like that in front of the world on Thanksgiving, that was uh that was special. I think it’s just a matter of maybe getting older too and just stuff is starting to You’re not old. Yeah, the more things the more things you go through, the especially when it’s, you know, the same thing over and over again and you continue to overcome it and, you know, I’m going to continue to to do great things and play well. At least that’s the plan. Uh, you know, these will be in the rearview mir mirror at some point, but right now it’s pretty fresh and, uh, this is something I’m proud of. How long did it take you to go from can’t believe this happened to all right I’m going to be back this year that law systems go like when how long did that take basically it’s always a process I’m not sure I’m not sure I could pinpoint an exact time um you know once you get a couple weeks out and you start to get back into lifting and training and the rehab starts to progress and you’re doing more functional movement, uh then you your mindset starts to switch a little bit. We’ve talked a lot, Joe, today about what makes you so special uh getting your offensive line in the right protections, how much you work at that, and why that makes you the quarterback you are. When did you first start really spending a lot of time doing a lot of homework on on the right protections for each game? Um, the first time it was really introduced to me at the level that, you know, you can start to critically think about it was when Ryan Day got to Ohio State and he was my quarterback coach. We started to talk about a lot of things that from an NFL type perspective. Um, it just kind of made sense to me and, uh, it kind of always has from that point on just kind of makes sense. You know, seeing defenses and seeing body language is something that I’m pretty good at, you know, especially later in the game after you see see a couple things a couple times. Um, that’s one of the reasons that I I feel like I’m so good is because I can see it, I can feel it, and I can react to it quickly. Um, just kind of always made sense. Is it intuition, preparation, combination of both? Yeah, it’s it’s a combination of both. Our coaches come together and give us the answers to the test. It’s not like I’m coming up with the calls myself. Uh they we meet every Thursday and they show us all the different looks and what calls you want to get in to against certain looks and then um you go from there. What’s different about the offensive line this year? Why are they playing at the level that they’re playing right now? Reps guys are older. We haven’t had too many injuries this year. when when you have a group that’s together for 11 weeks at this point, then they’re going to gel and continue to get better. Um, we have guys that want to get better, that love playing and um have really taken a step and taken ownership of what they’re doing. You talk about your ability to read a defense and read body language and things like that. Is do I mean like is there anything about you specifically in your mind that makes you good at that? No, I can just I can just see it and feel it and react to it. Um yeah, it’s as simple as that. So, do you have a photographic memory? I wouldn’t say that. I remember things pretty decent. Uh not certainly not photographic like some people talk about. Were you a good test taker in school? Yeah. Yeah. I could do I could Yeah, I could take the test and not really worry too much beforehand. It’s math, right? I mean, what do you what you’re doing out there with testing and stuff? It’s like math, geometry. It’s more pattern pattern recognition and problem solving. Is is being a great test. is being a good test taker like is that a similar concept to what you’re talking about? Um it certainly applies a little bit to football. I think you know Sunday is the test you can a lot of people studied and knew all the answers and then when the test came they would forget it. Same thing with football players. A lot of guys can be in the classroom and tell you exactly where they’re supposed to go with the ball against a certain look and then get out there on game day and can’t can’t read it, can’t react to it. There’s a lot there’s a lot that goes into it. Joe, the last time y’all were in Buffalo was a playoff game. Y’all were at the top of the AFC. How much given everything that’s transpired over the last couple years there eagerness among you and the guys to get back to that point where these games you’re playing in those kind of games again up there wherever to be that kind of team again. Yeah, that’s where that’s why you play the game. That’s why you work so hard to put yourself in those positions and to play big time games against great players, great teams in front of the world. That’s that’s why we do this. Do you watch Allen at all on tape? Yeah, of course. What do you What stands out about him? What do you like about his game? Yeah, you can just tell how much he’s improved year to year. He’s Everybody obviously sees the athletic ability, size, and speed and everything, but just the improvement year to year throwing the football and putting it where he wants to has been impressive. Thanks, guys. Thank you, Joe.

Joe Burrow speaks to the media ahead of Week 14 against the Buffalo Bills.

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