CINCINNATI \u2014 While Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow led the NFL in passing yards and touchdowns last season, offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher said that he sees a quarterback that\u2019s looking even better than he did last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just see a guy that\u2019s seen a lot of football, played a lot of football and has no fear whatsoever,\u201d Pitcher said on Wednesday after the Bengals\u2019 second day of minicamp. \u201cTotal comfort and confidence in himself and in his skill set. And if there\u2019s a window, he\u2019s gonna throw the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
The highlight of Wednesday\u2019s practice was a deep shot down the field over the middle to wide receiver Andrei Iosivas, who snared the catch between three defenders. <\/p>\n
Throughout this spring\u2019s workouts, organized team activities and minicamp, Burrow has been making aggressive throws into tight coverage.<\/p>\n
At this point last year, he was still rehabbing a major wrist injury that required surgery. Burrow said that last year, he \u201cwasn\u2019t quite back\u201d throwing the ball at the level he expected. He still had 4,918 passing yards and 43 touchdowns.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went out and played as good as I have,\u201d Burrow said. \u201cI\u2019m looking to take that next step. I\u2019m happy with the progress that I\u2019ve been making the last couple of weeks and getting better\u2026 I understand how to play the game more efficiently and more productively. Understanding what defenses are going to do to us and have all of the answers in your back pocket to try to combat that. I feel like I\u2019m as prepared as ever. Anything anybody throws at me, I\u2019ll have an answer for it. I\u2019m excited to show that again.\u201d<\/p>\n
In previous years during OTAs and minicamps, Burrow was focused on helping new players in the offense figure out their roles. Last year, he spent a lot of time with Iosivas as he stepped into the starting lineup and with new tight end Mike Gesicki.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow (9) participates in drills during NFL football practice Tuesday, June 3, 2025, in Cincinnati. Credit: AP\/Kareem Elgazzar<\/p>\n
This year, the Bengals bring back all of the core pieces from 2024. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re in a spot we haven\u2019t been before,\u201d Burrow said. \u201cGuys coming off of the season healthy. Getting all of our guys back. It\u2019s been weird this offseason not having to take care of a new guy we\u2019re counting on and try to teach him what I\u2019m looking at and want out of each play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Burrow was also happy not to be worrying about the future of his top two playmakers after Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins signed lucrative extensions in the offseason. Both receivers weren\u2019t at the offseason workouts last year, but have been there throughout this year\u2019s practices.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year, they\u2019re out there working on their own, not being here. But when you have those two guys, guys that bring energy, guys that make incredible plays day in and day out, and they\u2019re going to grind just as hard as everybody else. That permeates throughout the team,\u201d Burrow said.<\/p>\n
Running back Chase Brown, Chase, Higgins, Iosivas and Gesicki all return to the same roles that they were in last year. Pitcher said that Burrow can really benefit from having so much continuity around him.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the first things we talked about as a unit when we got together this spring is there are very few offenses in the league that have the experience and the time and the reps together that we have,\u201d Pitcher said. <\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t apologize for that. Take advantage of that. Build on the foundation that currently exists. I think we\u2019ve done that this spring. It makes you feel good, but you have to use it. If someone\u2019s giving you a head start in the race, don\u2019t go back and start with everybody else. Take the damn head start and use it. That\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CINCINNATI \u2014 While Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow led the NFL in passing yards and touchdowns last season, offensive coordinator…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2053],"tags":[228,227,256,2296,7,6,2309],"class_list":{"0":"post-122349","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-bengals","8":"tag-bengals","9":"tag-cincinnati","10":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","11":"tag-cincinnatibengals","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-wires-bot"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114666866586280253","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}