‘We Just Have To Play Better’

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow is well aware the team needs to get off to a better start next season.

The star quarterback is coming off of the finest season of his career after throwing for 43 touchdowns, 4,918 passing yards and 460 completions, all career bests. Burrow led the league in passing touchdowns and passing yards for the first time in his career, leading to his Comeback Player of the Year honor.

“It was great,” says Burrow in a one-on-one interview. “It’s not exactly an award that you want to be winning all the time because it means the previous season didn’t go the way that you planned. But I was proud of the work that I put in, to come back better than ever and it’s always nice to be recognized for hard work.”

Despite Burrow’s prolific season and the Bengals ending the year as the hottest team in the NFL, Cincinnati missed the playoffs for the second consecutive season. They did so despite a league-best five-game winning streak to end the season due to a 4-8 start to the year.

The Bengals began the year 0-3, which was eerily similar to their 2023 season when they also finished 9-8. The 2023 Bengals started out the season 1-3 before rallying off four wins in their final six games. However, they came up short of a postseason bid.

Cincinnati has historically struggled early in the season under head coach Zac Taylor, going 1-11 over the first two weeks of the season and 9-20-1 during the first five weeks in his six seasons as head coach.

“You just gotta play better,” says Burrow of how to cure the Bengals’ early-season struggles. “You can take a look at everything you do in the offseason or whatnot, I’m not sure how much training camp or preseason has to do with that. We’ll probably make some changes this year to try to figure that out. But at the end of the day, we just have to play better.”

Taylor stated at the end of the season that much emphasis will be placed on figuring out what needs to get done to get off to a better start in 2025.

Burrow said him and Taylor are always “talking” when it comes to how to improve the team.

“We always have our exit meetings, and so we talk about a lot of things,” says Burrow. “Where we can get better, where we need to improve, holes that we need to fill. Those conversations are always happening and are always productive.”

The Bengals obviously haven’t missed the playoffs due to a lack of performance by Burrow, who was arguably the best quarterback in the league during the 2024 season. However, other areas of the team are lacking despite the immense talent on the roster. Cincinnati ranked 25th in points allowed and ranked 30th in rushing yards.

In other words, there doesn’t seem to be enough of a support system around Burrow that puts them on the same level as other elite teams in the conference. That may be a major reason why the Bengals struggled to get off to a good start early in the season.

“Just continue to be consistent,” Burrow says when asked how he can improve on his 2024 campaign. “I’ve got a good routine and a good support system around me to help facilitate my improvement day to day.

“Everything is about consistency,” says Burrow. “At this point, to me, how can I consistently get better, consistently play great on Sundays. If you’re consistent in one part of your life, then you’re going to be consistent everywhere else. That’s what I’m focused on right now.”

Joe Burrow Along With Other Top Athletes Partners With BodyArmor

Burrow’s mantra of “consistency” is actually in line when it pertains to his partnership with BodyArmor. Along with other top athletes such as CeeDee Lamb, Trae Young, Connor McDavid, Jalen Brunson and Sabrina Ionescu, Burrow is partnering with BodyArmor for its “Choose Better” campaign.

“I’ve been with BodyArmor for a couple of years now,” Burrow details. “The campaign this year is just choosing better and it’s fun with me. I just try to get better every single day. You just try to be consistent in your discipline and wake up better the next day than you really did before.”

Burrow – who was speaking on set of the BodyArmor shoot – reveals that he’s big into playing chess and that there’s a chess set involved in the commercial.

“We’re bringing a chess set out at some point, and I’m excited about that,” says Burrow. “I’ve been playing a lot of chess the last couple weeks to fill some time, so I’ve been practicing. I’ve played chess since I was little. I got really into it a couple years ago, kind of fell off a little bit, and then I kind of picked it back up the last couple weeks.”

The Bengals’ franchise quarterback further details what the campaign is about and the mindset that he abides by every day.

“Choosing better, waking up, trying to be better, and the longer that I’ve played in the league, it’s about being consistent,” says Burrow.