The Pope of Columbus spoke: “You want to know how Joe Burrow’s gonna become great? Surround him with a great culture, with great leadership, and some great players, and he’ll be great. If not, he won’t.” The quote is almost laughable. So Meyer said if you put him in a perfect predicament he will be great, and if it isn’t the ideal one then Burrow won’t be. I know news is slow these days before the season ramps up but this is just a weak quote and story.
Dear Urban, come coach in the NFL where paying players is legal and you have to build a championship through free agency, cap constraints and a 48 man active gameday roster. If the above quote is true then I think the Bengals are well on their way. The team has great leaders with AJ Green, Geno Atkins, Trey Hopkins and Carlos Dunlap. Who better to show Burrow the NFL way?
He is walking into a team with great skill positions and a completely revamped defense that couldn’t have got worse. The lineup still needs tweaking in the coming years but he does have great players on this team.
Culture is the big question mark for me. When Marvin came on board a million years ago it is the first thing he had to change and every other story you read was about the changes he was making throughout the organization and facility. I don’t think Taylor had as much to do because Marvin’s message wore out but the culture was still a winning one. Taylor needs to get wins quick and a playoff birth over the next two seasons will build upon this culture and show hope that Burrow can lead a team to a Super Bowl.
Joe Burrow can still be great and he is going to impact culture, be the leader and get players around him that are great. I guess Urban Meyer believes that this is the perfect recipe…..like any other football person out there.