To see a somehow still-improving, superstar quarterback in Joe Burrow lead the Cincinnati Bengals onto the field is among the greatest sports-watching privileges of my lifetime. Burrow will do that in Thursday's preseason opener in Philadelphia.
But once Burrow and the Bengals' high-octane offensive A-team leave the gridiron for the evening, the reins will go over to a journeyman QB who, I say, is still the most underrated trade asset in the entire National Football League.
Real ones know who I'm talking about. The man who ignited the Jacksonville Jaguars' continued tailspin. He who filled in for Burrow down the stretch of the 2023 season, kept Cincinnati in the playoff hunt till Week 17, and carried a lead into the fourth quarter at Arrowhead Stadium.