Joe Burrow's Bengals Are Beginning to Feel Like the Drew Brees Saints of the Early 2010s

When Joe Burrow was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals with the number one pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, he was looked at as someone who would be the savior of Bengals football. At the time, it seemed to be true, a kid raised in Ohio was going to be the one who would help revive one of the state's iconic football brands. It felt like something that came straight out of a Hollywood script, something that would never happen in real life. But, somehow, someway, it did.

In just his second season in the NFL (and his first one fully healthy), Burrow guided the Bengals to a Super Bowl appearance where the team just fell short to the Los Angeles Rams, losing the game 23 to 20. While the loss was gut-wrenching for the team and its fans, it felt like this was the beginning of something special. After years of either being mediocre or bad, the Bengals had finally turned the page. Burrow proved he was the real deal, and as long as the organization built up the rest of the team around him, the Bengals should be perennial contenders for years to come.

The key sentence, "as long as the organization built up the rest of the team around him". Fast forward to 2025, and a strange sense of déjà vu is creeping in. Not for Bengals fans, but for those who followed the New Orleans Saints in the early 2010s.

It's not just the elite quarterbacks who are maybe the most accurate passers of their generation, it's not just that their offenses can light up the scoreboard. It's the troubling signs that the team may be throwing away years of their quarterback's prime, much like the Saints did with Drew Brees in the early portion of the 2010s.

While it's not the exact same instance, as Brees was not drafted by New Orleans, he and Burrow's careers thus far have shared similar storylines or arcs. The both of them, early on in their careers, did have to battle back from potentially career-derailing, if not ending, injuries. In 2006, Brees underwent shoulder surgery on his throwing arm for a torn labrum and rotator cuff, which was part of the reason why the Chargers allowed him to walk to free agency, where he signed with the Saints that same year. For Burrow, in 2020, his rookie season, he suffered a gruesome knee injury that ultimately led to major surgery that repaired a torn ACL, MCL, and PCL.

As we know now, the two quarterbacks not only came back from those injuries, but they came back even better. So much so that they brought credibility back to their seemingly morbid franchises. For Brees, he was able to lead the once-considered laughingstock Saints to a Super Bowl victory in 2009, while Burrow brought the Bengals to the Super Bowl in 2021 and the AFC Championship Game in 2022.

Then came the unraveling.

Brees was not the reason for the Saints' downfall; he was still as good as ever. It was all the result of everything around him. Brees topped the NFL in passing yards for four of the five seasons from 2012 to 2016. Each year, he threw at least 30 touchdowns. He was putting the team in position to win games. However, in four of those five seasons, New Orleans finished with a 7–9 record. With Brees putting up those numbers, you may be asking, "How is that even possible?" Well, when you surround your Hall of Fame level quarterback with some of the worst statistical defenses in NFL history for an extended period of time, you might be asking just for a bit much from your offense.

Now, I fear we could seeing a similar story play out in Cincinnati.

After years of being one of the more clutch units in the NFL, always seemingly finding a way to make a key stop when the team needed it, last season the Bengals' defense fell off a cliff and also ended up being one of the worst statistical defenses in NFL history. Despite having the league's individual sacks leader in Trey Hendrickson, the Bengals finished near the bottom of the league in total team sacks. They gave up the most passing yards per game and simply couldn't stop anyone late in games. Having that awful of a defense essentially threw away the best season of Burrow's career, where he led the league in passing yards and touchdowns, as well as having wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase win the league's receiving triple crown, finishing number one in receptions, touchdowns, and yards.

Going into the offseason, the Bengals' number one priority, they said, was to upgrade the defense, but based on their actions, they haven't valued it that much at all. For months now, they have been in a standstill with their best defensive player, Trey Hendrickson, who led the NFL in sacks in 2024, and now are in another contract dispute with their first-round pick pass rusher, Shemar Stewart, over language in his rookie deal. With that, the team's lack of urgency is becoming hard to ignore.

It serves as a stark reminder that your "Super Bowl window" in the NFL typically shuts sooner than anyone expects. It also doesn't help when ownership continues to be cheap.

Ownership frugality was another defining characteristic of the Saints' post-Super Bowl teams. New Orleans' ownership expected Brees to win games by himself as they began to take shortcuts and not invest in good defensive players. Of course, we all know the Bengals aren't exactly known for being big spenders either, but after signing Burrow and other offensive players to hefty contract extensions, I thought maybe that times had changed. But it's become obvious once again that ownership is pinching pennies in critical areas of their football team.

Similar to Brees when the Saints began to decline into mediocrity, Burrow is starting to enter the prime years of his career, and like Brees, he's not the issue. He's actually the complete opposite; he's the sole reason why the Bengals can beat anyone on any given Sunday. Football, however, is one of the ultimate team sports. Even the best quarterbacks can only mask so many flaws before a poorly built roster brings everything to a head.

There is still time for the Bengals to get this train back on track. Burrow has said for years how he believes in the team and the culture he helped build. However, faith only takes you so far. The front office and ownership need to be willing to do anything to win, even if it means spending a little bit outside their budget to ensure they don't waste the prime years of Burrow's career.

If not, we might be wondering a decade from now how Joe Burrow was only able to get to the Super Bowl one time, much like we do with Brees.