BURROW’S INCREDIBLE RIDE REACHES TOP OF NFL DRAFT
Bengals get their franchise quarterback by landing the Heisman Trophy winner
Two years ago this spring, Joe Burrow announced on Twitter he was transferring from Ohio State University after three frustrating years.
He was tired of riding the bench, of not getting a chance to show how good a passer he could be.
Two Aprils later, well, that’s no longer a concern for Burrow. And probably won’t be ever again.
On the basis of having unexpectedly zoomed to college superstardom last fall at LSU, the quarterback on Thursday night was selected No. 1 overall by the Cincinnati Bengals to kick off the three-day NFL draft.
Reports said the Bengals already had informed Burrow on Wednesday he was their man. He was the first of three QBS to be selected in the top 6.
The draft, originally scheduled for Las Vegas, was conducted remotely via video conferencing because of the coronavirus pandemic. Physically isolated team personnel, league officials, drafted players and network talent alike were remotely connected.
Outside of a few, to-be-expected but still-annoying sync-up delays and glitches, early on it all seemed to go off without a hitch.
Much like Burrow’s last season in college.
“To jump up to No. 1 overall is crazy to me, but it’s a dream come true,” Burrow said on the joint NFL Network/espn telecast.
Told ESPN’S top draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. had rated him as a sixthround pick entering his senior season at LSU, Burrow suggested that low grade was justified at the time.
“I wasn’t very good my junior year. It’s pretty simple,” Burrow said from his parents’ home in Athens, Ohio. “But I worked really, really hard to get better.”
Thirty-one other top prospects were picked Thursday after Burrow, to conclude Round 1. The draft continues with Rounds 2-3 on Friday starting at 7 p.m. EDT, and Rounds 4-7 on Saturday starting at noon EDT.
Canadians Chase Claypool (a tall and muscular but speedy University of Notre Dame wide receiver from Abbotsford, B.C.) and Neville Gallimore (a powerful, penetrating Oklahoma University defensive tackle from Ottawa) were expected to be selected Friday, by the middle of Round 3.
A few other Canadians have an outside chance at being drafted in a late round on Saturday.
So much buzz had swirled in the hours, days and weeks prior to Thursday night about this team or that trading up into the top 10 — or, more accurately, about teams in the top 10 seeking trade partners to trade down, to acquire more juicy picks.
The night’s first trade didn’t go down in the first hour, however.
With the No. 2 overall pick, Washington, as expected, took the top edge rusher in the draft, Ohio State defensive end Chase Young, who grew up less than 30 miles from Redskins headquarters in Northeast Virginia.
Young stands nearly six-footfive, weighs 264 pounds and is universally described not only as a super-freaky athlete, but an uncommonly impactful playmaker.
New Redskins head coach and chief defensive strategist Ron Rivera must be rubbing his hands at adding so promising a pass-rusher.
The Detroit Lions at No. 3 selected cornerback Jeff Okudah of Ohio State.
Right, another Buckeye. The top three picks all played at OSU at some point.
Even after Burrow transferred to LSU in summer 2018, he had an OK — certainly not great — first season, his first meaningful playing time since piloting his Athens High School team in Southeast Ohio from 2012-14.
No one thought Burrow capable prior to last college season of what he wound up displaying week after week. He scintillated for LSU, completing 76.3 per cent of his throws for 5,671 yards, 10.8 yards per attempt, 60 touchdown passes and only six interceptions — arguably the best statistical season of any passer in U.S. college football’s 150year history.
Burrow won the Heisman Trophy in December as college football’s top player, led the LSU Tigers to a 15-0 record and national championship — and now is viewed as a can’t-miss pro, loaded with top shelf QB skills, both physical and mental.
The six-foot-2½, 221-pound Burrow was raised in Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota and Ohio as a college coach’s son. His dad, Jim Burrow, played in the CFL from 1977-81 with Montreal, Calgary and Ottawa.
At No. 4, the New York Giants selected Georgia offensive tackle Andrew Thomas, something of a surprise. Not that the Giants took a tackle; rather that they took THAT tackle. Some draftniks, such as Daniel Jeremiah of NFL Network, rated Thomas the No. 4 OT in this draft.
The Miami Dolphins at No. 5 indeed took the second best QB, Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa — as forecast by many for months, and as most Dolphins fans dearly hoped.
A lefty who left college a year early, Tagovailoa was the mystery man of the entire, endless, four-month pre-draft process. It’s because Tagovailoa dislocated his hip last November, a serious injury that ended his Crimson Tide season and threatened to kill his football career. But surgery was successful, and he’s now working out fully and throwing again. That might have chagrined the Los Angeles Chargers, who had tried unsuccessfully since January to convince everyone they were content to go into the 2020 season with meh veteran Tyrod Taylor at QB.
At No. 6, the Chargers picked the QB most pegged as the third best in the draft, Justin Herbert of Oregon. He’s athletic, strong-armed and accurate on the rollout.
The knock on the six-foot-six, 236-pounder is he holds the ball way too long before throwing, and that his substandard footwork too often leads to out-of-the-blue awful throws. The Chargers were not dissuaded.