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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Chris Roling

Mel Kiper Jr. comes to defense of Bengals fans over Joe Burrow

Cincinnati Bengals faithful have unexpected allies in Mel Kiper Jr. and Stephen A. Smith.

If the last few weeks have felt demoralizing for Bengals fans thanks to the Joe Burrow speculation, the NFL draft pioneer himself stepped in to shut down some of the noise.

Kiper fought back in favor of the Bengals on a recent edition of First Take:

“Well first of all, the bashing of the Bengals…the Bengals have been to the Super Bowl. Four teams in the NFL have never been to the Super Bowl…they had success with Carson Palmer, they went to the playoffs, he got hurt in the playoff game. And then Andy Dalton went to the playoffs…This notion the Bengals have been just horrible…is ridiculous.”

Kiper also made it clear he thinks the Burrow will indeed be the pick and he’ll play there. And at the end of the clip, Stephen A. Smith isn’t too thrilled with the narratives either.

Speaking of narratives, we broke down all that has actually been said about the Burrow situation and why the national perspective has it wrong.

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