National NFL Analyst Reacts to Joe Burrow Taking Blame for Cincinnati Bengals' Shortcomings

When you look back at last season for the Cincinnati Bengals, your main takeaway should be that Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase, and the rest of the offense performed at championship level throughout the year.

What kept the Bengals from making the playoffs and competing in the post-season was a defense that ranked near the bottom of the league in all major categories.

Burrow led the NFL with 4,918 passing yards, 43 touchdowns and only nine interceptions last season.

"If I had played even better, we wouldn't have been in that spot that we were in," Burrow said last month. "I just focus on getting better myself, and I feel like everyone in the locker room feels the same way. If I go out there and play better than I did last year, then it doesn’t matter what goes on anywhere else."

Former NFL quarterback Chase Daniel reacted to Burrow's comments on The Facility on FS1.

"That's good leadership first of all from Joe, he's pointing the finger directly at him, that's always been Joe he's always stood up and never pointed fingers. To me, he doesn't owe them another playoff win, the least of the Bengals worries right now and all the problems that they have, is with Joe Burrow he is the last person they're worried about showing up including Ja'Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, Trey Hendrickson, and all the stars on that team," Daniel said. "In my opinion you can't play much better than what Joe Burrow did last season, if you look back last season as a quarterback and you only want six to ten plays back, that's a very, very good season. This is the least of their problems. There were three guys on the Bengals last season that stepped up, there's 53 men on the roster last time I checked, so in fact they owe Joe some playoffs, they owe Joe to play better, Joe has played exceptionally, insanely good football from the time he walked in this league. Yes he's missed the playoffs in back to back years, yes he still won 9 games last year with a defense that was ranked 25th in points per game. It's difficult as a quarterback to continually play at such a high level , yes he has some plays he want's back but Joe you can't play any better than you did last year, you can make some plays but my goodness how about the whole team step up around you."

The Bengals are hoping to get back to the playoffs for the first time since 2022. They've finished with a winning record in four-straight seasons for the second time (2011-15) in team history.