It wasn’t always smooth sailing for Joe Burrow.
Prior to last season, the Cincinnati Bengals gave Burrow a five-year, $275 million contract extension, which at the time made him the highest paid player in football.
The 27-year-old was the first overall pick in the 2020 draft by the Bengals after leading the 2019 LSU Tigers to a national championship.
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Joe Burrow of the Buckeyes warms up before a game against the Maryland Terrapins at Ohio Stadium on Oct. 7, 2017, in Columbus. (Jamie Sabau/Getty Images)
Before Burrow would go on to throw for 60 touchdowns and over 5,600 yards on his way to winning the Heisman Trophy for LSU, he started his college career at Ohio State.
The quarterback made it look easy on the field at times with LSU, but at Ohio State he rarely saw the field.
Over the course of two seasons with the Buckeyes, Burrow only appeared in 11 games and completed 29 of 39 passes for 287 yards and two touchdowns. He began to doubt himself.
“Yeah, I mean at Ohio State I was definitely questioning myself, because I thought, ‘I’m working so hard in the weight room, I’m playing really well in practice’ and I felt like nobody was really taking notice of that or seeing the improvement or how I was playing in practice.” Burrow said in a recent appearance on “The Pivot.”
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Quarterback Joe Burrow of the Ohio State Buckeyes calls out signals during the Rutgers Scarlet Knights game on Sept. 30, 2017, at High Point Solutions Stadium in Piscataway, New Jersey. (Hunter Martin/Getty Images)
“I was like, ‘Do I have a warped sense of myself and how I’m playing or what kind of quarterback I am.’ That was definitely tough those three and half years. I had so much confidence in the work that I was putting in off the field and the growth that I was having, but I felt like not a lot of people had confidence in me at that point.”
“All I had, like we talked about earlier, was the confidence in myself and the work that I was putting in would eventually come to light and pay off and thank God it did.”
Once Burrow got to LSU, it seemed the most difficulty he dealt with in the Bayou was with the lingo.
“I had no idea what the hell everybody was saying for the first like 2-3 months so I would just be like, ‘Yeah, you know.’ I had no idea.”
Burrow’s college success has translated to the NFL.
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Joe Burrow of the LSU Tigers celebrates against the Clemson Tigers during the College Football Playoff National Championship game on Jan. 13, 2020, in New Orleans. (Gus Stark/LSU/University Images via Getty Images)
After tearing his ACL his rookie year, Burrow led the Bengals to the Super Bowl, where they lost to the Los Angeles Rams his second season. The following season, he brought the Bengals to the AFC Championship, where they lost to the eventual Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs.
The Pro-Bowler tore a ligament in his right wrist last season during a Week 11 matchup against the Baltimore Ravens, ending his season. Burrow has been a full participant in this training camp.
The Bengals will host the New England Patriots to open their season on Sept. 8 at 1 p.m. ET.
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