Cincinnati Bengals tried to talk Joe Burrow out of skipping Senior Bowl

LSU football’s Joe Burrow isn’t participating in the Senior Bowl this week in Mobile, AL.

Much to the dismay of the Cincinnati Bengals, Joe Burrow isn’t participating in the Senior Bowl this week in Mobile, AL.

Burrow decided to skip the Senior Bowl to spend time with family after leading LSU to a win against Clemson in the national championship on January 13.

Publicly, the Bengals said they understood why Burrow was skipping the Senior Bowl, with Cincinnati head coach Zac Taylor saying “he (Burrow) just played an NFL season”.

Privately, however, the Bengals really wanted to see Burrow at the Senior Bowl.

According to Senior Bowl director Jim Nagy, Taylor called Burrow’s dad in an attempt to get the talented quarterback to participate in the Senior Bowl.

Obviously the Bengals want to get a closer look at a player they might be trusting to be their franchise quarterback.

But that’s not the only reason Cincinnati likely wanted to see Burrow in Mobile.

If the Bengals are locked in on Burrow (and it certainly seems like they are), then the Senior Bowl would’ve been an opportunity to essentially start coaching him. According to MMQB, they could even give Burrow a watered down playbook that includes about 30 of their plays (with different terminology).

Basically, it would be a way to give Burrow a bit of a head start as the Bengals’ quarterback.

I certainly understand Cincinnati’s desire to get to Burrow to Mobile, but I also understand why he skipped the event. He just played a lot of football and his draft stock is already as high as it will ever be.

There will be plenty of time this summer for Burrow to learn the playbook. I don’t think he’ll have any issues adapting to the Bengals’ offense.