Having great players on your football team is one thing. Having that one player that you can truly hang your hat on and truly claim him as “your guy” can make all the difference in the world.
Those are the types of players Gary Davenport of Bleacher Report checked out and ranked in a recent piece, ranking the top cornerstone pieces in the NFL.
Davenport had three pieces of criteria in choosing these players: 1) they had to be under the age of 28 at the time of Week 1; 2) they have to be playing for the team that drafted him and 3) they have to be a really good player.
Two Cincinnati Bengals wound up being mentioned by Davenport. On his Honorable Mention list is WR Ja’Marr Chase:
“All Chase did in his first professional campaign was break the single-season rookie receiving record with 1,455 yards while adding 81 catches and 13 scores and playing a major role in the Bengals making the Super Bowl. Other than that, he was just OK.”
You don’t need to think too hard who the other Bengal is.
At No. 3 on the list, surprise, surprise, it’s QB Joe Burrow.
“Burrow is Joe Cool. All the time.
Of course, as a quarterback it helps to be able to throw a football, and Burrow most assuredly can. His 2019 season at LSU (5,671 yards, 60 touchdowns, six interceptions) was so ridiculous that video games rolled their eyes. After his rookie year in Cincinnati was cut short by an ACL tear, Burrow rebounded to throw for 4,611 yards and 34 scores while nearly leading the Bengals to the team’s first championship.
With arguably the NFL’s best receiving corps around him and an improved line in front of him, Burrow has few limits.
And he could easily sit atop this list a year or two from now.”
He very well could be at the top of this list soon. Another year like last season and Burrow will inch closer and closer to that elite status and truly make the Bengals a perennial Super Bowl contender. The two players above Burrow on this list? You guessed it, Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes and Bills QB Josh Allen.
