Where does Joe Burrow land in PFF's 2021 analytical quarterback rankings?
Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow only got in 10 games as a rookie but flashed the upside confirming he was worth the No. 1 pick and has the ability to carry a franchise on his back. The early numbers and analytic deep dives would seem to support such an idea. Over at Pro Football Focus, Kevin Cole and Co. released their 2021 analytical quarterback rankings, which is a simpler way of saying they used Bayesian Updating to marry PFF grading with EPA-per-play and other tools to formulate rankings. Long story short, Burrow sits tied for 13th among all quarterbacks with an 80.5 grade. Thats over just 466 plays though, the smallest sample size of any quarterback in the top 20. Its just another way of illustrating that Burrow has immense, likely top-10 upside as soon as next season. This bit of strong grading came after an odd onboarding process and no preseason, so we can safely presume his grading was negatively impacted by trying to adjust on the fly and the poor team around him. Heading into year two, theres plenty of reason for hype when it comes to Burrow.