Patrick Mahomes 3-Peat Hopes Hinge on Joe Burrow’s Injury as Bengals QB Backed to Win AFC Championship Ahead of the Chiefs

There are only a few rivals that can deter the Kansas City Chiefs from winning the Super Bowl. One of those rivals is the Cincinnati Bengals and now that they have Joe Burrow back, Patrick Mahomes and his squad are in for some problems. There was a time a few years ago when the Bengals used to dominate the AFC North with Burrow at the helm, but can they do it again?

John Middlekauff got a fan mail asking him to elaborate on the Bengals’ upcoming season. The podcaster was amped on their upcoming season and pegged the Bengals to do some substantial damage in the coming season. The gist of the conversation is, that if Burrow stays healthy and his team displays a good run game, the Chiefs would be in trouble.

Can Joe Burrow repeat history against Patrick Mahomes?

Burrow stopped Mahomes from reaching his potential back in the 2021 post-season when the Bengals beat the Chiefs in a 27-24 overtime game. Unfortunately, the team lost to the Chiefs in the 2022 postseason when the Chiefs beat the Cincinnati team 23-20, and of course last year, the Bengals missed the playoff due to Burrow’s injury. But now that he’s back, things look on the sunny side for this Cincinnati offense.

Coming to the present, the fan wanted to know where the Bengals would end up in the AFC North this season. The Cincinnati team ended up leading the AFC North in the 2021-2022 season leaving the Steelers, the Browns, and the Ravens to dust. A lot of that credit goes out to Joe Burrow, Lou Anarumo, and HC Zac Taylor for setting up a great culture in the team. But this time around, the Ravens, the Steelers and the Browns are facing issues of their own.

“The Ravens, they are going to be depending on some young developmental players after losing some guys in the free agency. They got a new coordinator. You know where I stand on Deshaun Watson, I don’t think he’s very good anymore,” said Middlekauff and added, “The Steelers, while they have a pretty solid team, they’ve improved their offensive line, their quarterback position is more than a question mark.”

At the height of his career in the 2021 season, Burrow ended the season with 4,611 yards and 34 touchdowns with a career-high completion rate of 70.4%. Burrow was evidently in his prime and healthy. He bettered himself slightly in the next season but succumbed to a season-ending wrist injury a year later. But this time, he seems healthy and surrounded by his favorite receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins who helped the Bengals get a winning season despite Burrow’s absence.

The good news is that Burrow is active in the OTA and might be cleared to play the games very soon. But all will be clear when Burrow will be tested next week in 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 situations. For a while now, Burrow has been out of sight, and apart from his OTA appearance, there’s no word about his health.

The Cincinnati based QBs injury is quirky because no one has seen anything like it in the NFL.

Burrow’s uncanny situation

Firstly, Burrow’s injury affects his dart thrower’s motion, a follow-through action after releasing the ball, which might affect Burrow’s accuracy. Secondly, Burrow is deemed to have a scapholunate ligament complex tear, which results in a poor blood supply to the wrist, not to mention the pain caused by a torn ligament.

Jesse Morse, a respected sports physician consulted his orthopedic surgeon colleague who told him that “It’s a bad injury to have, invariably always lead to some instability over time and arthritis at an earlier age,” and that the Cincinnati signal-caller is “the only pro-qb I’ve heard of with this, so it’s hard to gauge.” The injury happened in the game against their divisional rival Baltimore Ravens in November.

But this season might be different because the Ravens, Steelers, and the Browns all have a lot on their plates to take care of. Cleveland has a huge problem at their quarterback position after the Deshaun Watson debacle, the Steelers also have QB issues where there in this trial phase with Russell Wilson and Justin Fields, and the Ravens have a new defensive coordinator in Zach Orr and traded their lineman Morgan Moses to the Jets, along with starters Kevin Zeitler (Lions) and John Simpson (Jets).

The crux here is that as long as Joe Burrow stays healthy, the Bengals have the chance of topping the AFC North, which will give them a chance to go against Patrick Mahomes, their AFC rival, and possibly ruin his 3-peat chances. However, “healthy” is the keyword here and there have been debates about Burrow’s health staying consistent. But to Burrow’s advantage, the Chiefs have a tough schedule with restless nights, a lot of road games, and an early bye week, which may exhaust Patrick Mahomes and his troops.

What do you think? Can Burrow take the Bengals out of the ditch this year? Let us know below.