Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow could join a pretty elite group this week.
As Michael David Smith pointed out for Pro Football Talk, Joe Burrow could become just the fifth quarterback in NFL history with 5,000 passing yards and 45 touchdowns in a single season.
“Burrow has 4,641 passing yards and 42 passing touchdowns, which means with 359 yards and three touchdowns against the Steelers, he’d finish the season with 5,000 yards and 45 touchdowns. That has only happened four other times before: Dan Marino in 1984, Drew Brees in 2011, Peyton Manning in 2013 and Patrick Mahomes in 2018,” Smith wrote for Pro Football Talk.
But as Smith points out, Burrow can make more history, too.
“Burrow also has three or more touchdown passes in eight straight games, and if he does it again he’ll join Tom Brady as the only quarterbacks in NFL history who have thrown at least three touchdown passes in nine games in a row,” Smith wrote.
Needless to say, this is some pretty insane news, especially considering that the Bengals are likely to miss the playoffs despite his dominant season, and it led to a lot of reactions on social media.
“If you told Bengals fans before the season this would be the case, they’d probably be thinking just give us the Lombardi,” one fan wrote on X.
“No question, he should be the MVP if he leads them to the Playoffs,” someone else said.
“He’s my MVP,” another fan added.
“17 games or not, that 5k/45 TD combo is rare air. Only Brady, Manning, Brees and Marino have done it. Stats are stats but context matters – Burrow doing this with a patched O-line and rotating WR corps is next level. When elite QBs face adversity, they hit these marks at just 31% clip,” someone else said.
“The race for MVP gets more interesting each week,” another fan wrote.
“Burrow has been lights out this year!” someone else added.
Burrow is leading the NFL in both passing yards and passing touchdowns and would almost certainly be an MVP contender if not for the fact that his team was unlikely to make the playoffs, even with a win over the weekend.
