Film Session: Joe Burrow's 2024 Season

Joe Burrow is the standard.

He might not have the arm strength of Josh Allen. Or the speed of Lamar Jackson. Or the improvisational skills of Patrick Mahomes.

But there is no quarterback who plays from the pocket better than Joe Burrow.

His game starts with anticipation. He’s a timing and rhythm passer. It’s enhanced with his pocket presence and ability to navigate the pass rush.

Not to mention, he does have some underrated scrambling and play-making ability.

Below, I take a deep dive into over 30 plays from his MVP-caliber 2024 season.

Anticipation

I’ve expressed this sentiment many times before, but show me a quarterback making anticipation throws, and I’ll show you a quarterback who has numerous other critical skills needed to play the position. To anticipate consistently, you need to be able to read the defense, process quickly, play with timing, see the field, know where defenders will be (not where they are), understand your playbook like the back of your hand, have good footwork, throw with accuracy and touch, and basically understand how to play the position like a pro.

Burrow is as good as any quarterback in the league in this department:

He consistently gets the ball out of his hands before his receivers are out of their breaks and before the defense has time to react:

Need a good playcall for 3rd-and-a-million? With a quarterback who can release the ball before the defense knows what hit them, you’ve got a shot:

Many like to talk about how good his receivers are. And don’t get me wrong, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins might be the best 1-2 punch in the game. But the Bengals don’t complete passes merely because of their receivers. Burrow creates completions with his ability to anticipate.

It allows him to complete passes against tight coverage and into tiny windows that other QB’s wouldn’t necessarily consider to be open:

It allows him to manage the pressure around him, something he’s had to deal with in Cincinnati for his entire career:

He got that ball out just before the pass rush got home. It was probably a split-second before he would otherwise have wanted to, but it worked out here because he has such a good feel for making anticipation throws.

Here, his anticipation skills allowed him to process quickly in the face of a blitz and get the ball out in the nick of time:

Pressure and tighter coverage are what you generally see on 3rd down and in other critical moments. It’s on the quarterback to be able to navigate those situations. Burrow thrives in them because of his ability to anticipate. Maybe that’s why he has a career 103.5 passer rating on 3rd down and a 124.6 rating on 4th down.

Pocket Presence

It would be one thing if Burrow was able to execute his duties at such a high level out of mostly pristine pockets. But he’s had to do so in the face of pressure throughout his career.

His ability to navigate that pressure, throw with bodies around him (out of a phone booth so to speak), and deliver downfield throws knowing he’s going to take a big hit are attributes that separate Burrow from other quarterbacks.

Just take a look at this play as an example. He did an unbelievable job of not reacting to the closing pressure. There was no panic in his movement. He was quiet in the pocket, released the ball, took a big hit, and made an absolutely perfect throw:

Burrow hung in the pocket and knew he needed to get rid of this ball perhaps a beat sooner than he would have liked with the pass rusher closing. And of course, his ability to anticipate allowed this completion to happen as he let it go before his receiver was clearly open. He put it in a perfect spot across the field to allow his receiver to run away from the defense:

There are plenty of other examples of Burrow’s willingness to take a big hit if it means the chance of a completion: