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NFL NFL Week 15 Joe Burrow's ability to recognize defensive patterns, set protections and find explosives out of them has set him apart in the NFL. Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images CINCINNATI — When franchise quarterback Joe Burrow returned from his toe injury on Thanksgiving and took over the starting role from Joe Flacco, center Ted Karras wanted to hold a special meeting with his offensive linemen. “We had to do a little presentation, ” Karras said. The potential adjustments in protections were understandably simpler with Flacco, injected into the system in mid-October, than they would be with Burrow, who has taken 2, 180 game snaps from the veteran center. Karras wanted to offer a refresher of what to be prepared for when Burrow made adjustments pre-snap. Advertisement “I had to catch up some of the younger guys, ” Karras said. “When Joe comes back, we have a lot of different words, a lot of different precedents and context he brings to the table. He will throw some wild cards out there you need to know. ” Drew Sample, the Bengals’ tight end and protection chess piece, explains it another way. “Everything is live, ” he said. Reams of playbook adjustments from years of practice could pop up at the lean of a linebacker. The vast majority of plays, Karras sets the protection understanding that Burrow can trump the call if he sees something that warrants adjusting to unlock a new play. Usually, he doesn’t. In today’s NFL, these moments most often surface on third downs when defensive coordinators go deep into their bag of exotic pressures. There’s a reason they call it the money down. Follow the money to the quarterback to process and produce amid the highest leverage. Audibles and problem-solving of complicated, disguised blitz looks are the moments when the quarterback must diagnose the problem, read defensive tells, get into the proper play adjustment and exploit the answer — all in about 10 seconds. While much of the football world wants to focus on Burrow’s sullen news conference or existential search for fun, players merely have their own fun being around moments like these. “To me, that’s probably my favorite talent of his is his ability to know what the defense is doing before they are doing it, ” tight end Mike Gesicki said of Burrow. “It’s really special. ” On third downs since 2022, no quarterback owns a higher passer rating, completion percentage, touchdown rate or first-down rate than Burrow. “Seeing defenses and seeing body language is something that I’m pretty good at, especially later in the game, ” Burrow said. “After you see a couple things, a couple times. That’s one of the reasons that I feel like I’m so good is because I can see it, I can feel it and I can react to it quickly. Advertisement “It’s as simple as that. ” As anyone around Burrow will attest, there’s nothing simple about it. As the son of a defensive coordinator, football and the intricacies of defenses were part of the fabric of Burrow’s life in southeast Ohio. Not until he made his way up Route 33 to Columbus did he discover what kind of weapon that intuition created. “The first time it was really introduced to me at the level that you can start to critically think about it was when Ryan Day got to Ohio State, and he was my quarterback coach, ” Burrow said. ” We started to talk about a lot of things that, from an NFL-type perspective, this kind of made sense to me, and it kind of always has from that point on. ” Burrow famously didn’t have much opportunity to show off the sense for protections and blitz recognition he was sharpening behind the scenes with Day as he waited his turn with the Buckeyes. What happened next at LSU is the stuff of college football legend and history books. But once he arrived in the NFL, his ability to recognize defensive patterns, set protections and find explosives out of them propelled his immediate impact. Early in the 2021 season, setting a protection and audible to a jailbreak screen to C. J. Uzomah set off an overtime victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars that served as an early catapult in the push to the Super Bowl. It also launched a “You can’t ‘Zero’ me” mic’d up meme that lives on to this day. “Just put it in my hands. It’s over. ” Joe Burrow was THAT confident at the end of TNF ? ️ (via @NFLFilms) pic. twitter. com/5u TRn6x5t N — NFL (@NFL) October 2, 2021 “Joey Franchise is just back there dealing dots out there, knowing and understanding what the defense is doing, ” Uzomah said after the 24-21 win in Week 4. “He called that play up and just made something happen. He gave me a wink after I caught it, and I was like, ‘This guy here, he’s reckless. ’ He’s the smartest person out there at all times. ” Advertisement Staff members each have their own favorite Burrow protection checks; one is a touchdown pass where he gets to a max protection after a motion to find Ja’Marr Chase for a 26-yard touchdown against the Baltimore Ravens in the 2022 season finale. Or a play against the Houston Texans in 2023, where he sent a halfback motion out to uncover the structure of a Double-A gap look. When nobody moved, he checked to a third-down conversion throw to tight end Tanner Hudson. Inability to comprehend the increasingly complex defensive blitzes and simulated pressures mitigates the growth of many quarterbacks as they transition from college to the NFL. The star in high school and major college ball might wow scouts with arm talent, scrambling ability or accuracy, but if they can’t figure out how to set up protections to unlock third downs, they spin off into the crowded quarterback graveyard. “I think it probably leads to stunted development for some guys, because at the end of the day, they’re all puzzle pieces that fit together, ” Bengals offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher said. “So when you understand the front structure, ‘Okay, I’m in a known passing down. This is the specific front structure. I know they bring these three patterns of pressure out of that front structure, and behind those specific patterns, they’re only going to play one or two coverages. ’ So you start to build it from the ground up. ” It then becomes a job of recognizing the post-snap movement, then finding the perfect space and player to exploit in response. “But if you’re not asked to see the front and do the things protection-wise from the start, there might be a whole universe of things that you might see when you catch the ball, ” Pitcher said. “So it’s a process of elimination when you’re trained that way. And Joe, I mean, he does a great job of it. ” The most recent example came on Thanksgiving night in Baltimore when Burrow spotted a unique blitz the Ravens have used against him over the years, moved Sample and Samaje Perine around to help pick it up, then saw a different coverage than they’d shown behind it unfold. After the snap, he recognized that an over route to Andrei Iosivas on linebacker Roquan Smith would be the ideal play. YOSHI TD ? : #CINvs BAL on NBC pic. twitter. com/l FU348UU2w — Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) November 28, 2025 “Protection-wise, that’s probably the most challenging look that they present, ” Burrow said. “O-line knocked it out. Drew was part of that. Samaje was part of that. And then (a) great read by ‘Drei, not just taking the middle but noticing that they didn’t have a backside safety and able to bend it a little bit to the space. That was an all-around great play. Advertisement “Once I saw Roquan getting there out and the field safety pushing to the field, I knew where I was going as long as (we) were both on the same page. ” One week later in Buffalo, the money-down diagnosis was on again. The Bengals converted 10 of 12 third downs against the Bills, with Burrow going 8 of 10 for 104 yards and a touchdown, posting a 143. 3 rating. For a rookie guard like Dylan Fairchild, the difference in confidence is being asked to protect, knowing Burrow and Karras will get to the ideal adjustment. “It’s huge, ” Fairchild said. “He does a great job getting us in the right call every time. Ted does a great job as well, putting us in the perfect protection to block what we think they are going to bring. Matching our guys up on the high probability guys, they are going to blitz. It’s huge. It’s one of the biggest parts of football. ” So much of the skill comes from a brain uniquely built and addicted to problem-solving. There’s a reason Burrow picked up chess years ago and was quickly waxing everyone in the locker room. Among the same reasons he’s so lethal on the football field. Last week, he laughed off the idea of having a photographic memory, but admitted he’s always had a great memory and been a fantastic test-taker. Coming out of LSU, he notably scored in the 97th percentile of the S2 cognition test that grades prospective NFL quarterbacks on processing speed and memory. Burrow sees a direct tie between test-taking and football. Anybody can absorb information in the classroom, but can they quickly see and decipher it in the moment when it matters? “It’s more pattern recognition and problem solving, ” Burrow said. “A lot of guys can be in the classroom and tell you exactly where they’re supposed to go with the ball against a certain look, and then get out there on game day and can’t read it, can’t react to it. There’s a lot that goes into it. ” Advertisement NFL defenses have never been more complicated. Simulated pressures, linebackers standing up at the line, hybrid players adding confusion, constantly changing the picture after the snap, disguises everywhere, you name it. Playing the position has never been harder. Even the days of Peyton Manning standing at the line, pointing out what to expect from a static defense, don’t exist in the same way. The movement is continuous. There’s a reason young quarterbacks are failing at record rates and veteran mid-tier QBs are finding a niche. Understanding the protections and problem-solving when defenses decide to get exotic with their looks on money downs is valued more than ever. That’s part of what helped a player like Flacco enjoy success so quickly in Cincinnati. Similarly, for Daniel Jones in Indianapolis, as well as Sam Darnold in Seattle. Currently, only one quarterback ranked in the top 10 in EPA/dropback is on a rookie contract (Drake Maye). The past two seasons on third downs, Burrow has converted a first down on 53 percent of attempts. The next best is Brock Purdy at 48 percent with a league average of 39 percent. Burrow’s strongest, most underdiscussed weapon has only accentuated his value as the league evolved this year. That fact has been clear while watching the precision and playmaking he put on display during his return in recent weeks. He sees a combination of preparation and intuition at the core of what helped this weapon grow over time. “Our coaches come together and give us the answers to the test, ” Burrow said. “It’s not like I’m coming up with the calls myself. We meet every Thursday, and they show us all the different looks and what calls you want to get into against certain looks, and then go from there. ” No matter where he goes, everybody knows to be on high alert when the time comes for Burrow to pull a call from training camp, OTAs, Week 4 or 2024. Advertisement Everything is live. “What you see is years and years and years of experience doing it, ” Pitcher said. “So it’s investment in the study of what you’re going to see, and then just the ability to recall the look, know exactly what I need to do in a moment, and then communicate it very quickly. “And in my opinion, it’s one of, if not the most difficult things for a quarterback to learn how to do, coming from college into the NFL, and there are varying degrees of what is asked of quarterbacks across the league based on offensive system. We put a lot on Joe’s plate because he can handle it. ” Apparently, it’s just that simple. Paul Dehner Jr. is a senior writer for The Athletic. He's been covering the Bengals and NFL since 2009, for six seasons with The Cincinnati Enquirer and The Athletic since 2019. He's born, raised and proudly Cincinnati. Follow Paul on Twitter @pauldehnerjr