No, Getting Joe Burrow’s LSU Band Back Together Is Not The Answer
Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
I still remember the first time I saw a Joe Burrow jersey in Paul Brown Stadium. It wasn’t in his rookie year in 2020. It wasn’t even in his second year, when fans were actually allowed to go back into the stadium in a post-pandemic world.
It was in Week 17 of the 2019 season, when I saw an ingenious fan tape “BURROW” over his old Carson Palmer jersey. The Cincinnati Bengals were in the midst of a miserable season, but down in the Bayou, the LSU offense was unstoppable, and Burrow’s arrival was imminent. Burrow threw sixty touchdowns en route to a Heisman Trophy, with some help from Ja’Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson being the most unstoppable receiver duo in the nation. Interestingly enough, Burrow’s Tigers won a National Championship against Clemson, a team that featured Burrow’s future Bengals teammate, Tee Higgins.
Bengals fans knew their savior was coming, and they were right. Joe Burrow — the first of 14 LSU players taken in the 2020 NFL Draft — lived up to all the expectations. One year later, his college wide receiver, Chase, came aboard, and they’ve been arguably the best QB-WR duo in the NFL since then.
But not all those Tigers lived up to the hype. One of those underwhelming players is Clyde Edwards-Helaire, who fell short of the expectations that came with being the Kansas City Chiefs first-rounder from that draft. The Chiefs just released him after four seasons, but his fall from first-round-pick grace hasn’t stopped some within Who Dey Nation from hoping for another college reunion for Burrow.
Reunion time? @JamesRapien says the Bengals should make this move⬇️👀https://t.co/1mcf5RP3sB
— Bengals Talk (@BengalsTalkSI) December 16, 2024
Real talk: We need to fire the phrase “But he was a first-round pick!” into the sun. So was Akili Smith! It doesn’t mean anything! And Edwards-Helaire is an example of that. While his career started off just fine (800 rushing yards and five TDs as a rookie), the running back slowly faded into obscurity in the Chiefs’ offense in favor of Isiah Pacheco and Kareem Hunt. In fact, he has been a healthy scratch for the Chiefs’ last nine games, six of which saw Pacheco inactive due to injury. Not a good sign. He was released from the team on Monday.
That has not stopped yet another wave of Cincinnati fans trying to get the old band back together.
The Bengals after getting CEH and embracing the power of friendship in the 2019 LSU team. https://t.co/jz7gYUnst2 pic.twitter.com/OIAZp3fVYW
— Bengals_Storm (@Bengalsfan631) December 16, 2024
Edwards-Helaire is far from the only former LSU player for whom a portion of the fanbase has vouched for in situations like these. It’s a common sentiment that arises whenever anyone from Burrow’s 2019 team becomes available. Bengals fans don their favorite “BURREAUX” jerseys, tweet out five-year-old highlight reels of that player’s NCAA days (with NFL highlights conspicuously missing), and insist the Bengals front office should pounce on these Tigers.
This also happened with Thaddeus Moss, who received incessant hype because of his ties to Burrow, and also, because his dad is NFL legend Randy Moss [EDITOR’S NOTE: Let’s Moss cancer, King]. Despite the fact Moss has since retired from football and never even played a down in the NFL, fans all over Cincinnati were convinced that he was the chosen one.
Thad Moss to Bengals at 215. Get Joe Burrow his guy
— Will Rucker (@Will_Rucker3_AD) April 25, 2020
The younger Moss was given chance after chance, despite being underwhelming even in preseason action. The non-stop hype train got to the point that I ordered a custom-made jersey with “Thad Moss” on the back to satirize it. I still wear that jersey to some games to this day. I have zero regrets. You gotta commit to a bit like that.
And that’s not the end of our history lesson. Remember people trying to convince you that Terrace Marshall was going to break out with Burrow after a change of scenery?
*IF* this is Tee Higgins last year in Cincinnati, the #Bengals will need to consider adding to their WR room.
Keep in mind, Terrace Marshall had 13 TDs in his lone season playing with Burrow and Chase at LSU.👀👀👀 https://t.co/kIjS4xTcRw
— Michael Zimmelman (@MZimmel) October 19, 2023
Look, Aiden O’Connell and Gardner Minshew aren’t Burrow, we get it, but the guy still has two catches and 11 yards this season playing for the Las Vegas Raiders.
What’s next? Is someone going to request the Bengals sell the farm and shrink the defensive budget to around 20 bucks by trading for Justin Jefferson?
Bengals should trade Tee Higgins and picks for Justin Jefferson.
Get the LSU band back together
— Ben Coil (@CometCoil) October 10, 2023
Oh… I mean, at least this time the LSU Bengals fans identified a player who can actually play NFL snaps. It’s growth.
It’s fully understandable that the Bengals fanbase is looking for any hope to hold onto for the organization to turn things around and get a Super Bowl win. However, the idea that Burrow is magically going to make players from his alma mater better, despite having no evidence of them playing well in the NFL, must end. It’s the kind of reactionary thinking that comes from doing five seconds of research and seeing exactly one video of a touchdown from five years ago. Unfortunately for Edwards-Helaire, he doesn’t have much more than that to hang his hat on, or the Chiefs would surely have kept him.
The LSU team from 2019 was nothing but pure magic. That said, the key word here is “was.” As great as they were, the Bengals must leave those memories in the past if they want to move forward.
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