You don’t really recognize and appreciate how valuable a good quarterback is until you see the alternative. Nine-and-a-half games of us watching Joe Burrow grow before our very eyes gave us a fresh perspective of what it looked like when a quarterback elevated an otherwise subpar team. Without him, there’s not much that makes the Cincinnati Bengals a competitive team, not much less a good team, and despite losing by just two points to the New York Giants, the Bengals looked as bad as their now 2-8-1 record advertises them as.
Things aren’t going to get any easier for Cincinnati, but you already knew that.