There’s going to be a ton of talent on the field at Paul Brown Stadium on Sunday. With the skill players both the Cincinnati Bengals and Kansas City Chiefs possess, the AFC’s top matchup of the week has all the makings of a shootout.
As head coach Zac Taylor said earlier this week, this is the biggest game of the Bengals’ season to date. If the Bengals beat the Chiefs, Cincinnati will clinch a postseason berth. If they lose, their Week 18 matchup with the Cleveland Browns becomes a must-win scenario.
The main storyline of Sunday’s game surrounds the quarterback matchup between Joe Burrow and Patrick Mahomes – two of the league's youngest and brightest stars.
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Burrow and Mahomes have never met each other in person. They’ve shared texts and communicate through social media but this will be the first meeting between the two star quarterbacks.
“This is a big opportunity, whether it's the Chiefs or whoever they throw out there against us,” Burrow said. “We've got an opportunity to go out there and win and win our division and make the playoffs. We're playing a really good team that's been in the Super Bowl the last two years, so it's a big opportunity in that sense.”
How do Burrow and Mahomes match up?
Burrow, in his second season, has been able to watch Mahomes navigate his first few years in the NFL from afar. The Chiefs drafted Mahomes in the first round of the 2017 NFL Draft. It was a pick that surprised many as he wasn’t necessarily viewed as a “top-10 pick worthy” quarterback by most draft pundits.
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Mahomes and Burrow’s first seasons in the NFL don’t resemble one another in the slightest. Burrow was drafted and expected to start from Day One. Mahomes sat behind veteran quarterback Alex Smith for his first season in the NFL. And when he got his opportunity in 2018, the Mahomes show began as he earned the NFL’s MVP honor in his first season as a starting quarterback in the NFL.
The following season, Mahomes led the Chiefs to the AFC Championship and then won Super Bowl LIV where he was named MVP for his performance in the comeback win over the San Francisco 49ers. In 2020, Mahomes and the Chiefs won the AFC again and lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl LV.
Burrow is ultra-competitive by nature. The 25-year-old didn’t mince his words when he said he expects to play like he did against the Baltimore Ravens when he threw for 525 yards and four touchdowns. His confidence and poise are part of why he’s playing at the level he is so early on in his career.
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He’s a team-first guy, though. So although there will be a lot made of the matchup between he and Mahomes, Burrow’s only concern at the moment is helping his team win and earn a trip to the postseason – something the Bengals have not done since 2015. He doesn’t care if he throws for less than 300 yards or has to throw for 500 again. It won’t become a statistics competition with Mahomes because that's not who Burrow is.
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Burrow is outperforming Mahomes this season. Cincinnati’s second-year star is Pro Football Focus’ highest-graded quarterback heading into Week 17 of the NFL season. Former MVPs like Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers and Mahomes all have lower overall grades than Burrow who sits at the top with a 91.7 grade for the year.
But as Burrow knows, a quarterbacks’ legacy is determined off how they play in big games like Sunday and wins in the postseason. Mahomes might have the leg up there now, it doesn’t necessarily mean it will stay that way and the Bengals now have a chance to prove otherwise.
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“They've been one of the best offenses in the league since he has been the starting quarterback,” Burrow said of Mahomes. “We're going in expecting to have to score a lot of points and we'll adapt accordingly.”
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