Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo compared Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow to a future Hall of Famer.
The Kansas City Chiefs and Cincinnati Bengals have quite the rivalry now, considering the amount of trash talk leading into and exiting the AFC Championship Game. The Chiefs were victorious by the score of 23-20 and clinched their spot in Super Bowl 57. Even with the amount of talk being said, there is still some mutual respect.
Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo was asked about Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow during Opening Night of Super Bowl 57 on Monday, and gave quite the comparison for the third-year quarterback. In Spagnuolo’s eyes, he sees a young Tom Brady.
“I see a young Tom Brady,” said Spagnuolo, h/t the Bengals’ official website. “Not just his talent, but I love his killer instinct. He’s a killer and when your quarterback is like that, the other ten around him are like that. It makes the whole offense that much tougher. I have a great deal of respect for him.“
Chiefs DC Steve Spagnuolo sees Joe Burrow as ‘a young Tom Brady’
That is a comparison that any young quarterback would love to have. Given what NFL and college football fans have seen in less than five years, Burrow is on a path to become one of the best quarterbacks in the game.
Burrow played his way into the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft after he threw for 5,671 yards and 60 touchdowns while completing 76.3-percent of his passes for the LSU Tigers, all while going undefeated and winning the College Football Playoff National Championship. Burrow’s skillset translated to the NFL tremendously early on.
In his second season, after returning from a torn ACL, Burrow helped lead the Bengals past the Las Vegas Raiders, Tennessee Titans, and Chiefs to clinch a spot in Super Bowl 56. They led 20-16 for the majority of the fourth quarter until a Cooper Kupp touchdown reception with just over a minute remaining gave the Los Angeles Rams the 23-20 win.
Then in this playoff run, we saw Burrow show that “killer instinct” as Spagnuolo mentioned. That was evident in the Divisional Round against the Buffalo Bills, where he completed all nine of his passes for 105 yards and threw two touchdown passes in Cincinnati’s first two offensive drives of the game.
Not to mention there was also the gutsy fourth-and-six play in the AFC Championship Game against the Chiefs, where he completed a 35-yard pass to wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase, which then set up Samaje Perine’s game-tying two-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter.
Burrow completed 26-of-41 pass attempts for 270 yards and one touchdown while throwing two interceptions in the aforementioned AFC Championship Game.
Spagnuolo has huge respect for the competitor in Burrow. The Chiefs and Bengals will be facing off at Arrowhead Stadium during the 2023 season.