The Story with Rachel Nichols: Joe Burrow Is Back, But Are the Bengals?

Hi, I'm Rachel Nichols here with Connor Orr.

Welcome to the story.

Connor, excellent to have you back.

And I want to talk a little bit about yesterday's games.

And I want to start with Joe Burrow and the Bengals.

Do you think today's performance is a sign that Burrow and the Bengals are finally figuring things out?

Because I feel like I've asked that question each of the last few seasons.

I think whenever we get back to back T.

Higgins and Ja'Marr Chase cooking games, we get this false sense of security that this team is on a different track.

When I think the reality of my central complaint with the Bengals always has been the inability to run the football in clutch times.

And it's weird.

In the years when Burrow is bad, they're actually better at running the football, even with just simple kind of five-man protections.

But one of the reasons I was so down on Cincinnati in the first place this year, not a ton of investment in like tight ends, fullbacks, H-backs, guys who can really make this run.

I thought they should have made a run at Saquan Barkley at the trade deadline, if I'm being honest with you.

That's interesting.

I mean, maybe it's possible.

that when he's not doing well, they feel more responsibility to buckle down in the run game.

I mean, it's just a weird thing, as you said.

So weird.

But I will say this, I mean, having met with T and Jamar and talked about their relationship, there is no wide receiver 1 and 1A in the NFL that understand how to get the other person open better than those two.

And when they're cooking at full health and full speed, it truly is something that's difficult to slow down.

Yeah, I do love watching that.

I mean, come on, it's elite.

I want to ask you about San.

So I don't normally say in the same sentence as elite, but I'm just going to go for it with no transition.

To his credit, he went toe to toe today.

I mean, they really, you know, look tough, even all the way through the overtime.

So, do you think he is proving that he deserves a shot as an NFL starter anywhere, possibly Cleveland?

Who knows?

I think so.

And I think the one that sealed it for me, and I think the one that sealed it for a lot of people was down the stretch in that game, him hanging in the pocket and taking one of the hardest hits.

That I've seen this season and completing a pass that put the Browns into field goal range that ended up pushing them into overtime.

And you see what Shaur does.

He took it and he ran with it today.

And as much as we like to make fun of him and the Saints even did the watch celebration yesterday, but at the same time, he played a complete football game.

And if DeSean went down again, I don't think that you have a lot of concern about him taking the reins.

He seems to be maturing within the game.

And one of the things I thought was interesting was hearing the offensive coordinator talk about.

Hey, he's still actively learning since we picked the other guy, right?

So he didn't like go off and pound.

It's not me, but he really is improving week to week and that's obviously what you want to see and.

I guess how we're getting to where we are now.

I'm fascinated by this story in general and the team that is playing itself out of a position to draft another quarterback, maybe.

Um, so we'll see what happens.

I want to ask you about the Eagles.

Joe Milton, do you think he's shown enough to convince them he should be their starting quarterback for the rest of the way here?

Milton did some interesting things.

Things in this game.

And he certainly gave the Eagles an element of something that even over the last two years, they really haven't had with Jalen Hurts, and that's a quarterback who's really dangerous when he leaves the pocket, quarterback that's not afraid to throw anywhere on the field, and especially to kind of rip it downfield, uh, in 50/50 situations.

It, it, it didn't look great, but at the same time, He was noticeably wearing the Giants' defense down, and Nick Siriani trusted him a lot in the early game.

You saw some of the plays that he was able to make.

So can he make this team serviceable throughout the remainder of the season?

I, I, I think absolutely.

Is he gonna run away with this job or be in the conversation for next year?

I don't think so.

I don't think so either.

But have you seen the orange video from college?

Yes, yes.

Who hasn't?

I mean, that's, uh, he, he is a legendary player in many ways, uh, just unfortunately not for the Eagles.

Yeah, let's talk about Dallas a little bit.

Caleb Downs sealing it for the Cowboys against the Colts, who are admittedly a struggling team.

Was this the last game that we see Jonathan Taylor in a Colts uniform?

I think so, but like we talked about last week, Rachel, I, I think the Colts have really bungled this trade deadline to date, and we had John Harbaugh even admitting that it was true that they put a 2 and a 4 on the table for.

The Colts for Jonathan Taylor.

They waited a day and then they yanked the offer back off the table because they were tired of waiting and they wanted him sooner than Indianapolis wanted to give him to him.

And so, I, I think they sold a couple of players too early.

And now I think they're waiting and the market is oddly adjusting again, probably not in their favor.

I bet they were hoping that they could maybe get that 2 and that 4 back from the Giants or somebody else at this point.

Yeah, sometimes the deals are only there when they are there.

Uh, I want to ask you about Green Bay as well.

Jordan Love looks like the Jordan Love.

like to see.

Sometimes it goes the other way.

But in this case, do you think that they can make a deep playoff run with him cooking like he is?

I think they can make a deep playoff run.

I think Jordan Love deserves to be alongside Brock Purdy in the MVP conversation.

And I think Matt LaFleur deserves a little bit of Coach of the Year buzz.

And I'll just say that , you know, not a lot of people are saying this when they gutted the wide receiver room in the offseason, but what that did was it allowed Matthew Golden to just play one position and to master that one position.

His head was spinning last year.

And now you can see he was a first-round talent.

He's comfortable, and he's taking attention away from Christian Watson, who's having an all-time season.

And so, I love this team.

I think they're going to get even more dangerous and Micah Parsons gets back too.

That should be spectacular.

And I like that they're taking it slow with Parsons.

This is a guy who has not been injured for like big stretches of his career.

He wants to stay that way.

Do you feel OK about that?

100%.

And we've entered such a ridiculous phase of the conversation on the NFL stage where we had former players calling out Jalen.

Hurts for having blood clots and saying, oh, because they were superficial.

It's so, he's not that hurt.

It's like superficial doesn't mean the same thing that you think it does when it comes to blood clots.

I am all for players protecting their generational health and not coming back on the field until they are fully ready.

Yeah, I think that is 100% true.

Uh, late game, dominant 49ers defense.

What do you think of how they're looking right now?

Are they your favorite for the Super Bowl?

As long as they can stay healthy, I really like San Francisco.

I like.

Chicago, uh, in the NFC as well for different reasons.

I think Chicago is a better attacking style defense.

I think San Francisco is better at kind of kneecapping opponents and taking away explosive plays.

But anytime Kyle Shanahan gets a great free agent pickup at the defensive coordinator position, we saw it with Robert Salah during their Super Bowl year and last year, now with Raheem Morris and having Brock Purdy played at MVP level too is, uh, is super helpful.

Yeah, they did have another injury to the defense though in the closing minutes of that game.

I don't know, man.

Those magnetic towers, maybe just follow them from city to city.

I, I, I mean, is it just a continuing conversation around the league of like, what the heck is happening with the 49ers?

It is.

And I, I think people forget a couple of years ago, 5 years ago, it was the Jets, 3 years ago, it was the Chargers.

Like there's always a team that has luck and we kind of tie it to circumstantial things.

I remember interviewing the 49ers director of uh performance and recovery, their former one, and the lengths that they went.

To get players ready for games, including like tying these little red light bands around their knees during flights to make sure their knees didn't swell to a certain, and it was unfathomable the amount of effort that went into that.

And so it's bad luck.

It's an old roster, uh, which is something that kind of goes overlooked sometimes too.

Yeah, absolutely.

I live near an electromagnetic tower.

It's fine, people.

It's fine.

You mentioned the Chargers in there .

And I want to talk about their struggles this season, just big picture.

Picture because sometimes things are contained to a season and sometimes things within a season get so bad that people start to lose their jobs.

Where are they?

I think the fact that they're not selling at all at the trade deadline tells you how close that they still think they are, and it's gonna be one of the strangest 2027 storylines ever because this is the team that basically slept walked through the entire 2026 season, or is it the one that won 11 games the year before and we thought was on the precipice of a Super Bowl run, especially.

After they got Mike McDaniel, I think we could have a really interesting offseason on our hands here .

I don't think it's a Harbaugh replacement scenario yet.

But we'll see how dark it gets there.

Yeah, I mean, we thought maybe the offensive coordinator change will come during their bye week, and obviously didn't.

But I got to feel that for Harbaugh to keep going as he is, that's a change he's going to need to make, right?

It's a change that he's going to have to make.

And especially if someone like Colts head coach Shane Stein.

becomes available, right?

And Steinhe did a tremendous job with Herbert earlier in his career.

It was probably Herbert's favorite offensive coordinator that he's ever had.

If he comes back on the market, and I believe Steichen is a California native, that could be an interesting, uh, kind of a, uh, dot to draw a line between.

I do before we go, want to ask you about Lamar Jackson, because he has told teammates, I'm going to return later this season.

Do you think that the Ravens will be in a position for Lamar to play in January, which Just kind of the target .

I hope so.

But I, I think regardless, I think this is good.

I'm gonna give myself a little pat on the back here.

When Lamar got hurt, I wrote that he needs to do a better job with messaging.

He's notoriously reclusive.

And I think that that's what I love about him.

I love that, um, sometimes he only weighs in on situations through like a TikTok comment.

I think that's great.

Uh, that's how I handle my business as well, right?

But when you're the quarterback of an NFL franchise, sometimes you get lost, um, in the noise and your voice isn't heard.

And I think him being Vocal about the fact that, yes, I am working to make it back this season.

I'm going to play this season no matter what.

It just lets your teammates know that everybody's on the same page and that everybody's working towards a common goal.

Yeah, I read one of the texts from uh one of you good folk reporters was, uh, stay alive, that he texted the rest of the team.

Stay alive.

So hopefully, they can stay alive.

What do you think you learned about the NFL this week?

And what's the big question you still have going into the deadline, of course, just like we thought at the beginning of the season.

The teams that are largely doing the best are still the ones that can play really good defense, that have an attacking front, that have great defensive tackles, and that can mix it up in the running game.

I, I, again, I think Burrow is one of those options that's a little bit of an outlier.

The same with Josh Allen.

And I think the teams that I'm depending on to be there at the end of the year are going to be the ones with the highest yards per carry, and the ones that are going to get after the quarterback on a consistent basis.

And please, please, please, Vikings, get a quarterback at the.

Deadline and make life a little bit more interesting for me.

It is crazy watching them game plan around him.

I mean, it's kind of like what you were talking about with Shador in the previous season.

Like they will do anything to get the ball out of his hands.

And Kirk Cousins is sitting right there and they lost today.

Just, you know, I'll connect the two of you.

I'll put you on a like a third party line and I'll make it happen.

Yes, please, please make it happen for all of us.

When do you think the trigger is going to be pulled with the Raiders to make that switch because Kirk Cousins is not available when.

He's a starting quarterback.

You're right.

And I, I, you know, I think if you're the Raiders, it's got to be an internal kind of calibration.

And the one interesting thing that always sticks with me, and I know this is how Tom Brady thinks because Brian Hoyer said this, when Brian Hoyer was in New England, Bill Belichick said, me not putting you in a game is not a skill issue.

It's a safety issue.

And I know that Tom Brady always thinks the same.

He thinks the same about Fernando Mendoza.

He wants him to be great.

And I think that he views it more as a Safety issue than a skill issue.

Well, look, I think there is nothing more important to that franchise than Mendoza's development.

I was a big advocate for do not throw him on the field too early.

He needs to take the time.

Obviously, you know, he played the gun in college.

I mean, there's so many reasons that he had to get ready for an NFL debut, and there's no reason to rush it when you had someone like Kurt.

And by the way, that also, of course, and I don't have to tell you this, gives the rest of the team a little more incentive to play well early.

Because they feel like they're in good veteran hands with the guy who's been there and done that.

And then you let the rookie come in.

My favorite thing though about his training until he's ready, is that Tom Brady is basically acting as if one of his, one of his personal quarterback coaches.

I mean, it's just kind of nuts.

Not a bad gig if you're Fernando Mendoza , but I, I think he's ready.

I, I think in the limited snaps that we saw, um, in the regular season, he looks good.

He looked great in the preseason, really comfortable under center.

But I, I mean, obviously I'm taking Tom Brady's word over this over mine.

So yeah, you just want the Vikings to get a quarterback.

I see you.

I see you.

There you go.

Well, Connor, I really appreciate you taking the time.

It is great talking football with you.

I know we're going to do it again soon.

So have a wonderful rest of your day.

For the rest of you out there.

I'm Rachel Nichols.

Thank you so much for watching this story because you know, here at Sports Illustrated, the games may end, but the stories don't.

See you next time.