For the third time in his still young career, Joe Burrow will be missing a substantial amount of games for the Bengals due to injury. On Sunday, Joe was sacked late in the 2nd quarter and was helped off the field with a severe limp. Initially, it was thought to be a left ankle injury, possibly a sprain or bruise, but late last night, the news came down that he suffered a Grade 3 turf toe injury, which will require surgery and keep him off the field for at least the next three months.
Burrow is in Year 6, and it feels like we’ve seen this movie before. A generational quarterback, drafted to be the savior, ends up on his back more often than in the end zone. Sound familiar?
The Colts let their franchise QB get hit into retirement before the age of 30. And the Bengals, despite every warning sign, are walking down the same road with Burrow.
The Luck Parallel
Let’s look at the numbers:
| Andrew Luck | Joe Burrow | |
| Games Played | 86 | 71 |
| Sacks | 174 | 201 |
| QB Hits | 828 | 634 |
| QB Contact % | 21% | 20% |
| Pressure % | 28% | 27% |
*Data from ESPN/NFL Live
Burrow hasn’t been hit quite as often as Luck, but he’s already been sacked 27 more times in 15 fewer games. The percentages are nearly identical. Both quarterbacks were pressured or contacted on about one out of every four dropbacks. For franchise QBs, that’s football malpractice. To make things even worse, let’s take a look at Burrow’s sack numbers compared to the NFL average for the last 3 years.
| Joe Burrow | NFL Average* | |||
| QB Sacks | Sack % | QB Sacks | Sack % | |
| 2021 | 51 | 8.93% | 29.5 | 6.49 |
| 2022 | 41 | 6.34% | 28.1 | 6.79 |
| 2023** | 24 | 6.17% | 29.2 | 7.5% |
| 2024 | 48 | 6.86% | 30.7 | 6.6% |
*Minimum 150 pass attempts
**Missed 7 games due to season-ending knee injury
Joe’s sack percentage numbers are a little skewed since he is always at the top of the stat sheet in attempted passes (1st in 2024, 5th in 2022), but those sack numbers are STAGGERING. Let’s look at 2023, for example. Joe missed almost half of the year due to a season-ending knee injury and still finished only 5 sacks shy of the league average. In 2021, just his second year in the league, he saw a ridiculous 51 sacks and almost a 9% sack rate, eclipsing the league averages in both. In the last 4 years, Burrow has accumulated more sack yards (1,087) than A.J. Brown (1,079), Mike Evans (1,004), or Tyreek Hill (959) had in receiving yards last year.
Cincinnati’s Draft Neglect
The easiest way to protect your quarterback? Draft and develop offensive linemen. The Bengals have done the opposite. Since drafting Burrow in 2020, they’ve spent just nine picks in all seven rounds on offensive linemen, 4 of which are no longer on the roster.
- 2020 – Hakeem Adeniji (T): No longer on the roster.
- 2021 – Jackson Carman (T): No longer on the roster.
- 2021 – D’Ante Smith (T): No longer on the roster.
- 2021 – Trey Hill (OL): No longer on the roster.
- 2022 – Cordell Volson (T): Currently on IR; 59.3 PFF grade in 2024
- 2024 – Amarius Mims (T): PFF grade of 46.6, among the worst for starters.
- 2024 – Matt Lee (C): Backup Center; 27 total offensive snaps since 2024
- 2025 – Dylan Fairchild (G): Rookie with a shaky 54.8 PFF grade.
- 2025 – Jalen Rivers (T): Backup Tackle; 1 snap in 2025
Compare that to teams like the Lions or Eagles, who’ve made the trenches their identity. Cincinnati has put Burrow’s protection in the hands of reclamation projects and patchwork signings.
Every sack and every hit chips away at Burrow’s availability. He’s already suffered a torn ACL, a dislocated wrist, and multiple nagging injuries that have sidelined him for chunks of games, not including this latest setback. When Burrow’s healthy, the Bengals are a legitimate Super Bowl contender. When he’s not, they’re a fringe playoff team with their hopes riding on the arm of Jake Browning, which is exactly what fans will be seeing for the next three months, or possibly more, as we get more information over the next few weeks.
The Bengals had the blueprint right in front of them. They saw how the Colts wasted Andrew Luck. They saw how quickly elite QBs can be broken down without protection. And they’ve made the same mistake.
It’s not hyperbole when you hear Dan Orlovsky or Warren Sharp call this history repeating itself, because they are 100% right. It’s a form of malpractice, and the front office is solely to blame. Joe Burrow deserves better. Cincinnati’s fans deserve better. If the Bengals don’t fix the line, we’ll look back on Burrow’s career and wonder what could have been. Take note, NFL, this is what happens when you don’t pay attention to the trenches.