Joe Burrow 'comfortable' with Bengals' offense, says team will incorporate his favorite plays from LSU
The Bengals have made a lot of changes to their team this offseason.
They signed six projected starters and eight players total in free agency. They also moved on from veterans like Dre Kirkpatrick and Cordy Glenn.
Cincinnati completed its' offseason transformation over the weekend in the NFL Draft when they took Joe Burrow with the No. 1 pick.
"We really helped ourselves — not just this weekend, but really, over the last month-and-a-half," head coach Zac Taylor said on Saturday. "We put ourselves in a really good position — not only from starters that we’ve acquired, but players that are going to add depth and value there. I’m really excited about how the weekend has shaken out.”
Now that Burrow is on the roster, how is he going to be used? Will Taylor and offensive coordinator Brian Callahan put him in a position to succeed?
"It does and I think the direction that they're heading in is going to fit me even more. They're going to do things that I'm comfortable with and that's a great sign," Burrow said on the Rapsheet and Friends podcast. "They had me put down my top-10 plays that I had and send it to them so they can study them and see if they [can] have them in the offense, if they don't [currently] have them in the offense."
The key to the Bengals' success this season revolves around Burrow being comfortable with the playbook and the coaching staff maximizing his talent like former LSU offensive coordinator Joe Brady did last season.
There probably won't be any in-person minicamp or OTA's due to the coronavirus outbreak, so getting Burrow ready for training camp is a bigger challenge than it would be in a normal offseason.
The Bengals have given the rookie signal-caller the necessary firepower to run a lot of the same concepts he had success with in college. He'll be playing with a seven-time Pro Bowler in A.J. Green, a two-time 1,000 yard receiver in Tyler Boyd and a two-time 1,000 yard rusher in Joe Mixon. Burrow will also have former first round pick John Ross and Tee Higgins, who the Bengals drafted with the No. 33 pick.
The coaching staff won't admit it publicly, especially with the uncertainty surrounding Andy Dalton, but Burrow is expected to be the Week 1 starter.
"That's my goal," Burrow said. "I'm going to work really hard to get there and that first snap of training camp I'm going to walk into that huddle super confident and let everyone know that I'm there to do my job and that I've been doing it all summer. I've been learning the playbook, I've been taking care of my body and I'm ready to go."
Dalton reached out to Burrow to welcome him to the Bengals. The top pick said he's heard from most of the roster since being drafted on Thursday night.
Burrow met Dalton when he was working out in California earlier this offseason before the COVID-19 outbreak. He has no idea if Dalton will be on the roster this season. A lot can change between now and training camp, which is still months away.
Rookie minicamp begins on May 11. In the meantime, Burrow will continue his offseason program. The Bengals will have an orientation to welcome incoming rookies starting on Friday, May 1. It's a three day period that the NFL allows its' coaches to meet with first-year players in groups or individually for up to five hours per day.
Burrow made one thing clear at the end of his interview with Ian Rapoport — he's willing to do whatever it takes to win.
"I'm all about ball," Burrow said, when asked what he wanted fans to know about him. "That's all that I care about. I'm going to do whatever it takes to win football games. You probably wanted a little quirky answer or something like that, but I'm all about ball."
