PFF doesn’t think Joe Burrow was the best rookie QB in 2020

Former LSU football quarterback Joe Burrow finished his rookie season on the injured reserve list.

Former LSU football quarterback Joe Burrow proved in his rookie season that he was worthy of being the No. 1 selection by the Cincinnati Bengals in the 2020 NFL Draft.

In 10 games this season, before a knee injury sidelined him for the rest of the year, Burrow tossed for 2,688 yards, 13 touchdowns, and five interceptions.

Over 16 games, those numbers extrapolate to 4,288 yards, 21 touchdowns, and eight interceptions.

Not bad for a guy playing on a team with an almost non-existent offensive line (the Bengals seriously need to find a way to protect Burrow better in 2021 and beyond).

Where did Joe Burrow land on PFF’s 2020 rookie rankings?

Thanks to Burrow’s injury, which prevented him for finishing the season, he fell a bit in Pro Football Focus’s top 25 rookie rankings that were recently released.

Burrow came in at No. 5 on their list, one spot behind Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert.

While Burrow came in below Herbert in these rankings, there’s absolutely more reason to be optimistic about Burrow’s future career than Herbert’s (that’s no slight against Herbert, Burrow is just special).

According to PFF, Burrow finished the season as the No. 16 most valuable quarterback in the NFL (despite missing six games).

And here is another stat that shows how great Burrow can be.

PFF noted that Burrow had the lowest rate of passes to result in a “quarterback-fault incompletion” this season when in a clean pocket (four percent). According to PFF, that’s two percentage points higher than any other quarterback this past season.

Burrow’s injury prevented us from truly seeing how great his rookie season ended up being.

The Bengals got a great one in Burrow. The sky is truly the limit for the former LSU standout.