LSU Football: NFL GM thinks picking Joe Burrow first was a mistake by Bengals

LSU football’s Joe Burrow was the first overall selection in the 2020 NFL Draft.

The Cincinnati Bengals made the obviously correct decision with the first pick of the 2020 NFL Draft and selected LSU football’s Joe Burrow.

Drafting Burrow was a no brainer for the Bengals, a franchise in desperate need of a quarterback.

Surprisingly, not everyone in the NFL agrees. There’s at least one NFL general manager who believes Cincinnati made a mistake.

An unnamed general manager told The Athletic’s Mike Sando “If I were their GM, I’d play free agency for the quarterback, take Chase Young, a once-in-a-generation talent, and get a Joe Burrow at a different time.”

Get a Joe Burrow at a different time?

I have no idea which general manager made that asinine comment, but I assume it’s one that hasn’t had much success in the NFL.

Teams don’t simply get a potential franchise quarterback whenever they want. Finding a quality quarterback is one of the hardest things to do in sports. There are only a handful of elite quarterbacks on this planet. The Bengals had the opportunity to pick a quarterback with the potential to be elite. It was an easy decision.

Pass rushers like Chase Young can also be hard to find. But there are usually one or two elite pass rushers in every draft. There isn’t a Joe Burrow in every draft.

That’s a sentiment that an unnamed offensive coordinator echoed to Sando.

“If Cincinnati doesn’t take him, they should cancel their football team….He is a once-every-10-year guy”, said the offensive coordinator.

The Bengals would’ve been mocked by the rest of the NFL world had they passed on Burrow.

They deserve some praise for not over-thinking the pick and making a massive mistake.

It’s easy for opposing general managers to anonymously say they would’ve selected Young over Burrow, but I have a hard time believing anyone would’ve actually made that decision.