Dan Patrick followed up his Super Bowl interview with LSU quarterback Joe Burrow on Tuesday by analyzing the chat.
In the process, Patrick made a few different points, including the Cincinnati Bengals aren’t going to give Burrow a shot at a Super Bowl and that a team like the Miami Dolphins might be a better landing spot.
He also said he isn’t sure if Burrow is even excited for getting drafted by the Bengals:
“If Joe Burrow really wanted to go to the Bengals, he would say ‘I hope they draft me. I want to go No. 1 and I want to bring that team back to the Super Bowl. If you’re all in on the Bengals, then it would sound like you’re all in on the Bengals. He’s keeping his options open here because I don’t know if he’s all-in on the Cincinnati Bengals.”
This, of course, is mostly silly at this point. When Burrow told Patrick during Super Bowl week that he wanted to go to a team committed to winning a Super Bowl, the Heisman Trophy winner was trying to weave his way through tricky questioning without putting his foot in his mouth.
Or in other words, he was merely giving the typical “sports response” to a question. Indeed, Burrow might be keeping his options open (as his reps would surely advise for practical reasons) and he might (maybe!) have even been sending a slight message to the team that’s clearly going to draft him.
But for the Bengals, this is a non-story. It’s smart for a prospect to play things close to his chest. All of this ignores the fact Burrow’s basically a local product who with good friends like Sam Hubbard on the Bengals, too.
Maybe Burrow to the Bengals doesn’t end up happening, sure. But it’s unfortunate this narrative is already so consistent on the national side and it’s not even the second week of February.
