The 2019 LSU football team might have been one of the greatest teams in Tiger history. In fact, it could have even been the greatest team in college football history. The offense was simply unstoppable, and the defense was led by elite players like Derek Stingley Jr and Patrick Queen. However, no star shined quite as bright as Joe Burrow, who was most recently honored as a top-five college quarterback of the 2000s.
Joe Burrow recognized as one of the best college football quarterbacks of this century
LSU football star quarterback Joe Burrow was simply unstoppable during the 2019 season. With Justin Jefferson and Ja’Marr Chase on either side of him, there was almost an unfair amount of talent in that passing game.
Burrow would not only go on to win the Heisman Trophy but also the CFP National Championship that same season. Not to mention, he completely obliterated both the passing yards and touchdown records for one season. He threw the ball 527 times for 5,671 yards and a whopping 60 touchdowns in 2019.
A stat line like that would have been elite for most football players’ careers. Even scarier is that Joe Burrow broke the LSU football career passing touchdowns record in just two seasons. In those two seasons, he threw for 76 touchdowns, going down as one of, if not the greatest, LSU football quarterbacks of all time.
There have been plenty of great college football quarterbacks in the last 23 years, but it’s no surprise to see him ranked in the top five of ESPN’s top 75 quarterbacks in the 21st century. It actually wouldn’t have been surprising to see him ranked even higher. The name’s in front of him were Tim Tebow (Florida), Vince Young (Texas), Cam Newton (Auburn) and Baker Mayfield (Oklahoma).
If you ask just about any LSU fan, they’d tell you that Joe Burrow was a better college quarterback than each of them. However, all those quarterbacks were elite in their time at school and have earned all the respect they can get. Still, it’s hard to argue with stats like what Burrow put up in his two years at LSU.
Joe Burrow in the NFL
The thing about elite college quarterbacks is that they don’t always pan out in the NFL. That simply was not the case for Joe Burrow. Burrow has been in the NFL for three seasons now, and while he hasn’t entirely found the success he had in college, he hasn’t been too far off.
In his rookie season with the Cincinnati Bengals, Burrow played in 10 games, throwing for 2,688 yards and 13 touchdowns compared to just five interceptions. It wasn’t an elite rookie season by any means, but as far as young quarterbacks go, it showed promise.
From there, Burrow turned into a star. In the next two seasons, he would throw for 9,086 yards and 69 touchdowns. While it hasn’t quite reached the level he was at in college, he’s been near the top of the league both seasons and has solidified himself as one of the very best.
One of the best parts of Burrow’s time in the NFL is that he’s been teamed up with his former LSU football teammate wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase over in Cincinnati. In each of the past two seasons, the pair has reached the conference championship. In 2021, they made it all the way to the Super Bowl, falling just short to the Los Angeles Rams.
When it comes to Baton Rouge royalty, Joe Burrow is right up there with the best of them. He’s found success everywhere he’s gone and had one of the most remarkable seasons in college football history. To say he’s a top-five college quarterback in the 21st century is an understatement. Regardless of where anyone ranks him, in the hearts of LSU fans, he’s No. 1 through and through.
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