Joe Burrow Sees 2019 LSU Championship Traits in Cincinnati Bengals

Ever since he was selected as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 NFL draft, former LSU Tigers quarterback Joe Burrow has made the Cincinnati Bengals go from the laughingstock of the NFL to consistent championship contenders when he's healthy, such as in the 2021 season when he led the team to Super Bowl LVI.

It's a continuation of his play in Baton Rouge, when he was the leader of an LSU squad in 2019 that scored wins over seven top 10-ranked teams on their way to a perfect 15-0 record and a national championship, as well as a Heisman Trophy for Burrow.

An LSU squad that the Bengals' starting quarterback is starting to see in his professional team seven years later, and not just because he has one of his college teammates out wide to catch his passes.

2019 LSU Tigers? Or 2026 Cincinnati Bengals?

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow (9) looks on from the sideline in the fourth quarter of the NFL Week 18 game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Cleveland Browns at Paycor Stadium in Downtown Cincinnati on Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026. | Sam Greene/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

In an interview Wednesday afternoon at the Bengals' training camp, the ex-Tiger spoke of the atmosphere of the team and how much it reminded him of the 2019 LSU team, dubbed by many as the greatest college football team ever assembled.

"You go back and watch what I said before the 2019 season at LSU, I feel very similarly about this team. I'm so excited to get started and get moving," said Burrow. "I wish we ramped this right into training camp so we can continue to improve. I feel like there's so much greatness we'll be able to achieve this year that I'm just excited to get going."

What the former Heisman is referring to is a clip of himself at the Manning Passing Academy in the summer of 2019, where he predicted that the Tigers would "score a lot of points," saying he "didn't think a lot of people are used to LSU scoring 40, 50, 60 points a game."

Lo and behold, LSU averaged 48.4 points per game and absolutely crushed nearly every team in their path.

And to be fair, Burrow isn't expecting the Bengals to turn into the 2007 New England Patriots or the 2013 Denver Broncos, but he clearly believes that Cincinnati has a chance to flip the script as opposed to previous seasons.

Of course, we are sure that Burrow wishes that he had the same defense that he had in 2019, one that featured current NFL stars such as Patrick Queen and Derek Stingley Jr., as although Cincinnati's offense has been stellar behind Burrow's leadership, the defense has been notoriously atrocious in the recent years.

A solution to that problem was heavily sought after by Zac Taylor, and the Bengals were able to grab defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence from the New York Giants, and Burrow himself allowed his contract to be reconstructed to allow for $10 million in cap space for the upcoming year.

The similarities are definitely there for the Bengals in terms of comparison to the 2019 LSU team, so it's understandable why Burrow is thinking the way that he is. The only key difference is that Higgins on the opposite side of the field instead of Justin Jefferson, who is making his own name away from his college teammates with the Minnesota Vikings as one of, if not the best receivers in the league today.

The Bengals begin season seven of the Joe Burrow era as they host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on September 13.

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