How Burrow’s Quick Game Can Beat L.A.

NFL Super Bowl – Enough with the corny early-2000s sports movie narratives for Joe Burrow. It is not heart or grit or moxy or whatever you want to call it that has propelled Burrow to the Super Bowl in just his second year in the pros. Burrow may well have all of those things, but the reality is that none of it would matter if he was not a good player to begin with. Pinning Burrow’s success on some feel-good intangible nonsense takes power away from the very real and measurable ways in which he has already risen to the top of the league.

Burrow is not as physically talented as most other top quarterbacks around the NFL. That is not to say Burrow does not clear the minimum threshold—he surely does—but it’s not controversial to say that he is not operating with the same margin of error that Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Aaron Rodgers, Kyler Murray, etc. are operating with. All of the other top quarterbacks closer to Burrow’s level of arm talent in recent seasons were veterans with a decade-plus of experience, so it makes more sense that they would have the wealth of knowledge to work with less-than-elite arm talent.

Burrow’s average arm means he has to function without any hiccups or wasted time in order to approach elite status, which is an issue only exacerbated by the offensive line he has been shackled with. It also means he has to be particularly effective in the short areas of the field, because some of those intermediate windows are not always as available to him as they are for others. Somehow, he excels under those limiting parameters anyway.

With just two years of experience under his belt, Burrow is already operating in the underneath area as if he has been around for a decade. There is almost zero fat to Burrow’s game, which is not something that should be true of a 25-year-old. The closest approximation to someone else like that in recent memory is Dak Prescott, and Burrow may even be a tick quicker than the Cowboys signal-caller.

Decision-making and efficiency of movement are the hallmarks of Burrow’s quick-game success. Burrow does not waste any time between the snap and when the ball leaves his hand. He comes to the correct target right away, has the confidence to fire without hesitation, and never delays his throwing motion with added movement. Everything Burrow does, when he is on his game, is as clean-cut as quarterback play gets.

It is easiest to see that all come together when Burrow throws off his final drop step. That sounds like something all quarterbacks can and should do well, but the reality is plenty of quarterbacks struggle to play that fast mentally and that efficiently with their throwing mechanics on a consistent basis. Burrow’s final drop step flows effortlessly into his throwing motion.

The Raiders push their free safety to the short side of the ball right at the snap of the ball. A lot of other quarterbacks would see that and get worried that the side they have opened to is now overloaded with defensive bodies. Burrow knows the free safety still has to protect “deep,” though, and you can see it in how the safety slows down to wall off tight end C.J. Uzomah (87) from being able to bend towards the back of the end zone. The safety is playing inside and “on top” while the linebacker to that side is protecting inside and underneath. This gives Burrow a window, small as it may be, to hit Uzomah’s outside shoulder so long as the ball is out right away. Burrow carries the momentum from planting on his final drop step and immediately comes up to throw without any extra fidgeting or resets and delivers a strike.

Burrow’s ability to process and deliver at this speed is also why the Bengals love empty formations. Empty formations necessitate five-man protections (duh) and force the quarterback to feel “warm” as soon as the ball is snapped. The ball has to be out right away, or the quarterback has to bail. That is especially true behind Cincinnati’s putrid offensive line. Since Burrow is so good at operating under those conditions, the Bengals can embrace empty and lean into the quarterback masking the offensive line that way. It’s a Band-Aid solution, no doubt, but it has carried them all the way to the Super Bowl, so there’s no point fighting against it anymore (this year, anyway).

Cincinnati is running a mirrored hitch-seams concept with a sit route over the middle from the No. 3 (inside receiver to trips). From the pre-snap look, it’s clear that the Titans have surrendered space over the underneath middle area of the field. Linebacker David Long Jr. (51) is the only second-level player inside the tackle box, and nobody else to the trips side of the defense is even close. Burrow knows the sit route is going to be far enough away from any zone defender to the strong side and all he has to do is deliver the ball before Long can make his way over from the middle. Though the ball placement could be a little better, Burrow bouncing straight up from his final drop step to get this ball out affords him the breathing room to fit this throw with ease.

Even against funkier coverage calls, Burrow often operates with the same degree of sharpness. The Chiefs are known for their cheeky Cover-2 rotations, but the second-year passer was not phased by it at all on this rep. By the time Burrow gets the snap, the Chiefs’ weakside linebacker has creeped up to the line of scrimmage on a blitz, leaving Ben Niemann (56) as the lone immediate second-level defender pre-snap. Similar to the Titans clip, Burrow knows that the short middle defender is the one to beat if he wants to throw to the No. 3. As soon as Niemann bails to the other side of the field, Burrow replaces him with the ball without hesitation, beating the safety’s rotation over to that area by a full step or two.

Burrow operates quickly enough to beat defenders who hesitate for only a split-second too. On this rep, Burrow is playing off of the weakside linebacker, Willie Gay (50). If Gay sits in the hook window, Burrow throws the stick route to the slot receiver; if Gay drives on the stick, Burrow throws the slant behind him. It seems simple enough, but Burrow has to read the linebacker’s intentions and trigger to throw in the short window between catching the ball and his last drop step hitting the ground, then gather himself cleanly enough to get the ball out accurately. Good quarterbacks can do this occasionally, but great ones do it consistently, and Burrow falls into the latter category.

Lastly, Burrow’s ability to adapt while maintaining his speed of operation is why the Bengals can get away with as many adjustable routes as they do.

Readers may remember a similar play to this from a Film Room piece written on Burrow during his rookie season. The Bengals are running a snag/wheel concept, but the wheel route can be converted to more of a “find space” back-shoulder route than a true vertical route depending on the leverage of the defender. With the slot defender taking such a high and inside angle, Burrow knows he has to adjust to a back-shoulder throw, not one down the field where the defender can cap the vertical route. To confirm, adjust, and deliver on all of that while never halting his motion from the top of his drop into his throwing action is the peak of what it looks like for a quarterback to cut out all the fat from their game.

To be certain, Burrow has plenty of other elements to his game that have carried him to this stage. His pocket management is beyond his years, he has a rare trust in his receivers to win 1-on-1, and he is a tricky fellow to bring down once he gets moving outside the pocket. He is far more ambitious in how he tests defenses than most players with his kind of arm talent would or should be, yet he has found a way to walk that line well enough to play in the final game of the season.

Still, all of Burrow’s picture-perfect work underneath gives him ground to stand on. It affords him the slack to take those 1-on-1 sideline shots and make all of the daring plays outside of the pocket. Against a Rams team with as fierce a pass-rush as any and a defensive structure susceptible to short passing, this is the perfect opportunity for Burrow to showcase just how special he is at getting the ball out early. That alone will not be enough to bring home the Lombardi Trophy, but it will make a good launch pad for Burrow and company to set off their fireworks one last time.