Andrei Iosivas Is Stockpiling Trust
Credit: Katie Stratman-USA TODAY Sports
Cincinnati Bengals star Joe Burrow has always been one to include a lot of different wide receivers in his game plans. In 2023, Andrei Iosivas was getting settled into the offense, though mostly with Jake Browning. But a big offseason full of work from Iosivas and quality time in training camp is giving Burrow 100 percent confidence in the second-year wideout.
The connection is there, despite the vastly different paths each member of the battery had to the NFL. Coming out of college, Burrow had an incredible amount of fanfare after winning the National Championship for LSU. That wasn’t the case with Iosivas. He was an unranked prospect coming out of Honolulu, Hawaii, and ended up making his way to Princeton, which is among the most prestigious schools for just about everything… except football.
Even in an Ivy League program, the road to playing time was tough. As a freshman, he played on Princeton’s junior varsity team before being elevated to the main Princeton team as a Sophomore. He even took a year off from football in 2020. But in his senior season in 2021, he started producing solid stats, grabbing 41 passes for 703 yards and five touchdowns.
He was still a relative unknown until he put on the pads at the Senior Bowl, and NFL executives finally started to turn their heads. The Bengals selected him in the sixth round of the 2023 NFL Draft, and the fight to make a difference in the NFL… or even the Bengals roster… started. As a rookie, he played in 16 games, catching 15 passes for 115 yards and four touchdowns. Even though the stats didn’t jump off the page, there was some real chatter early in the offseason that Iosivas was one of the players who could make a big step forward in his sophomore season in the NFL.
Iosivas knew that one way to take that big step was to gain the trust of his quarterback. According to The Locked on Bengals Podcast, Iosivas has done just that this offseason.
There have been a few standouts for the Bengals during training camp, but something that keeps popping up is that connection between Burrow and Iosivas. It helps Iosivas’ case that Ja’Marr Chase hasn’t been practicing with the Bengals, which has opened up even more reps for the young guys.
“Yeah, Andrei is gonna have a big year,” Burrow said. “I’m really excited about how he’s coming along. Wherever he ends up playing, whether it’s outside or inside, he’s able to do it all. And then Chuck (Charlie Jones) is growing and learning every day. It’s exciting to see him get better. He’s having a really good camp too. So those two guys have really grown and improved over the last eight to nine months, and that’s been fun to see.”
Iosivas’ versatility has helped gain Burrow’s confidence. Iosivas has been playing both on the outside and in the slot during training camp. It’s clear that wherever he is asked to play in 2024, he’ll be ready for the challenge. During the last week of training camp, Iosivas has been running the routes that Chase would normally be running as the number receiver, and he has looked super comfortable doing it. Iosivas admits while running those routes, he envisions how Chase would run it and then tries to do the same.
“When we install routes and concepts, we install how it is on paper, then we look at how it’s actually run in the game,” Iosivas said, according to Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic. “I’ve had a little mental area of how Ja’Marr ran it and how he scored, so I pretty much tried to do the same thing and it worked.”
Chase and Tee Higgins will be in front of Iosivas on the depth chart when the season starts (assuming that Chase comes back), but Iosivas appears to have a real shot at the No. 3 spot. More important than where he lands, however, he has Burrow’s trust, and that is what will get him reps during the regular season. Based on what has been seen and said during training camp, when the game is on the line, Burrow might look to Chase and Higgins first. But don’t be surprised if you see him confidently launch a ball to Iosivas, and be less surprised if the young receiver comes through with big plays. The Bengals believe this is the year they can make a big run, and players like Iosivas seeming to take a leap is a big reason why.
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