LSU Football: Are deep throws an issue for Joe Burrow?

When former LSU football quarterback Joe Burrow was going through the draft process, there was a lot of talk about his arm strength and whether or not it was good enough for the NFL.

I never really understood those concerns.

Burrow proved at LSU that he was more than capable of throwing the ball down the field.

(Just check out this throw from a game against Mississippi State where Burrow connected 40-plus  yards down the field while throwing on the run.)

Questions about Joe Burrow’s arm strength persist

Questions about Burrow’s arm strength didn’t go away during his rookie season. In fact, those questions grew a bit.

That’s because Burrow struggled at times in 2020 to complete throws downfield.

In Burrow’s first four games as a rookie for the Cincinnati Bengals, he completed only one pass for more than 20 yards.

That’s not ideal.

But despite those struggles, Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan isn’t concerned about Burrow’s arm.

“I don’t think it concerns me,” said Callahan to Bengals.com last week. “Obviously if we started the season off and we’re still missing at the same rate, that would be concerning. But I think we’ll be able to rectify those issues.”

“We’ll watch them all through the offseason, see what we could have done better, see what we could have done differently at both the skill and quarterback position. I think it will be a thing we can get corrected pretty quickly.”

I think this mostly comes down to chemistry with wide receivers, plus the poor protection from the Bengals offensive line that Burrow received.

That’s why it’s so important for Cincinnati to put the proper pieces in place around Burrow moving forward. He can’t do it all himself.

If the Bengals don’t want to waste Burrow’s incredible talent, they need to put a team around him that allows him to be successful.

That team isn’t in place right now. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of moves the Bengals make this offseason to help Burrow out long-term.