Word.
We are getting much closer to actual football, but we still have time in the offseason for hot takes to reign supreme.
In one NFL analyst’s eyes, he sees a world where the Cincinnati Bengals Joe Burrow surpasses the Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes.
Chris Simms ranks Jalen Hurts #10 in his 2025 QB rankings. @getnickwright reacts:
“I just don’t know how you can say [Justin Herbert] is better than Jalen Hurts. That one ranking seems to me to be indefensible other than, ‘eh, I just know.’” pic.twitter.com/kQrw9Svvxb
— First Things First (@FTFonFS1) June 10, 2025
Simms certainly chose violence with this one. It is generally agreed that the top four quarterbacks currently are Burrow, Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, and Josh Allen. How exactly you order those four individuals likely has more to do with who you root for than any tangible attribute or stat out there. However, Mahomes is still usually first among those rankings.
When you look at it purely statistically regarding those four, these rankings are pretty sound. Mahomes had an off year by his standards, and Burrow, Jackson, and Allen all had MVP-caliber seasons. Simms thinks that trend may continue going into next season.
Mahomes will have another year with his young weapons around him and an elder Travis Kelce as a true safety blanket. He is still objectively one of the most talented quarterbacks in the NFL, with the ability to throw the ball wherever he wants and extend the play with his legs. He could absolutely go back to being the same guy who is chasing season records.
That is all to say that if one of these guys didn’t have Super Bowl rings already, this wouldn’t seem so outlandish. The Bengals missed the playoffs last season, but it is hard to blame Burrow, who had 43 passing touchdowns (two more rushing), just over 4,900 passing yards, only nine interceptions on 652 attempts, and completing just over 70 percent of his passes. It was an absolutely stupid statistical season and had Cincinnati made the playoffs; you would have been hard-pressed to make the case Burrow wasn’t the MVP.
That being said, there is no reason to get too sucked into the nitty-gritty of these kinds of arguments. Talent-wise, these guys are above the rest of the NFL right now. Everyone else is hoping their quarterback will turn out to be as good as any of these guys. Burrow is easily part of that squad, even if the team wasn’t up to snuff last season.
