Joe Burrow - 2020 NFL Draft Scouting Report

Before I get started breaking down Joe Burrow, I first want to make everyone in Louisiana immediately hate me and think that I’m a total piece of shit and compare him to Mitch Trubisky. Both were Mr. Football in Ohio, both went away from Ohio State to pursue their football dreams with Trubisky enrolling at North Carolina and Burrow transferring to LSU, and they both have one year of production that everyone wants to judge them on. Athletically, Burrow is incredibly similar to Mitch Trubisky. They’re not running quarterbacks, but they are quarterbacks who can run so you need to respect their legs since they have enough juice to get first downs if left unattended.

Now for Trubisky, his one year was his only year as a full-time starter, while Burrow has one incredible year after putting up pedestrian numbers in his first year at LSU. It makes me wonder why it is better to be unimpressive one year as opposed to just not playing that much. I would tend to favor the guy that never played before, because everything I have seen from him has been good, and the big thing that people are asking themselves about Burrow is whether he made massive improvements or whether this year is an outlier that will not translate to the NFL level. 

To break down Burrow, I took a look at his 2018 game against Florida, and his 2019 games against Alabama and Texas. 

Let's get those Louisianans back on my side with a beautiful back shoulder fade from Burrow. I have to say that I was a lot more impressed than I expected to be with Burrow's 2018 performance.

Here, he starts looking down the middle before shifting to the outside and sets his feet and makes a really nice throw on the slant to pick up a first down. The thing that I really liked about this throw is that Burrow not only throws it between two converging defenders, but he also throws it low so his receiver can avoid taking a big hit.

The biggest issue that I had while watching Burrow is how he handled pressure. He just doesn't have great feel in the pocket and even though he starts scrambling, he is doing it to make a play and does not know that there is a blitzer on his backside.

Two other things that I noticed in 2018 that did not seem to be as much of a problem this past season is that he would often throw short of the first down on third downs despite not facing any pressure. He's firing the ball all over the place this year so that is definitely not an issue.

The other thing is that he wasn’t real comfortable scanning the field when his first read was covered. There were a few times where he did some checkdowns, but rarely was he able to look at more than half the field. As for 2019, it was amazing to see him scan the field with no issues. He was looking left to right, checking down and finding open receivers. 

It's night and day. He’s very quick in his decision making. Here, he is looking down the field, nothing opens up, and he sets and fires to his running back while barely looking because he knows there is nobody over there to cover him. 

Burrow baits the defense on this play as he’s looking to his left the whole way, just waiting for the receivers to cross the field where there is no safety on the right side. It’s about as easy of a touchdown as you’re going to see. 

This is such a great play by Burrow as he stays calm in his pocket. His first option is covered, his second option is covered, his third option is covered, there’s nothing to the right side of the field, so he pivots, sees his receiver on the drag has some space and makes the easy completion. 

Unfortunately, his issues with pressure continued to pop up in 2019. He just doesn't have great pocket awareness or movement. Most of the time, he just doesn't show great feel for pressure, but he can also get moving and make poor decisions.

Here is a case where Burrow tries to force something that simply isn't there and nearly gets it intercepted on second down.

Even with occasional struggles against pressure, he is still willing to step up in the pocket and make big time throws. 

I love how he steps up in the pocket to make this throw. Burrow can fit it in tight windows but was also clearly helped by some very impressive wide receivers.

Overall, there is a lot to be excited about with Burrow. He's very accurate with his throws, shows the ability to scan the entire field and even though it's not a big arm, it's plenty big enough to get the job done. As for the National Title game tonight, Clemson has the studs on defense to pressure Burrow, and tonight may be the most important game to watch if I'm an NFL Scout, because if Clemson is able to pressure him, it will be interesting to see whether Burrow can raise his game and still lead his Tigers to victory.

I personally think that Clemson's defense will provide enough stops for their offense to carry them, but this certainly wouldn't be the first time someone underestimated Joe Burrow and was proven wrong.