Former LSU QB Joe Burrow Believes He's Just Scratching the Surface of Immense Potential

LSU isn't the only team heading into a "much needed" bye week. After a grueling eight game slate to kickoff his NFL career, former Tiger quarterback Joe Burrow is resting up before the second half of his stellar rookie season.

The Cincinnati Bengals No. 1 overall pick couldn't have asked for a much better start to his career from a numbers perspective. While the team sits at a disappointing 2-5-1 on the season, Burrow has put up historic numbers as his career just gets off the ground.

In eight games, he's tossed for 2,272 yards, 11 touchdowns and five interceptions while completing 67% of his passes. He's third in the entire NFL in passing yards at the moment and is on pace to break the rookie record in yards passing currently held by Andrew Luck.

He's on a short list of Offensive Rookie of the Year candidates, a list that includes quarterback Justin Herbert, receiver Chase Claypool and former teammate Justin Jefferson.

More importantly, with the exception of one game, Burrow's put the Bengals in position to win every single game this season. Coming off a 2-14 season, that's an extremely impressive task to accomplish. And the thing is, he's only just now beginning to realize his own potential.

"I'm just scratching the surface on where I can be and where I can go," Burrow said told reporters this week. "So, that's the most exciting thing for me."

"Obviously, there's a lot to improve. I'm nowhere near where I can be or need to be, but I think I'm off to a pretty good start."

Burrow believes in his heart of hearts that the Bengals have what it takes to make a run and start stacking wins together. That's what you want to hear out of a franchise quarterback and leader of the team.

It's going to be an extremely difficult goal to accomplish with the Pittsburgh Steelers (7-0), Baltimore Ravens (5-2) and Cleveland Browns (5-3) all above .500. No matter the outcome of this season, it appears that Burrow is well on his way to establishing himself as one of the league's premier quarterbacks.

“We’re kind of poking holes in what he can do better. He’s done a pretty dang good job through eight weeks," Bengals coach Zac Taylor said of Burrow's performance through eight games.