We don’t talk about Joe Burrow or Zac Taylor enough | Yahoo Fantasy Football Forecast

Yahoo Sports’ Matt Harmon and Andy Behrens explains why there should be more conversations surrounding Zac Taylor and Joe Burrow, especially after the Bengals' big win over the Buffalo Bills.

Video Transcript

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MATT HARMON: When you think of, like, oh, the AFC's elites, it's like, oh, yeah, Bills and Chiefs. They'll be there. We've got to get that Mahomes, Josh Allen game. We've gotta get that again, but maybe in the AFC Championship this time. That was sort of a national narrative. Even within their own division, it's like, well, Baltimore will be back. Lamar will be healthy-- stuff like that. The Bengals might not even win their own division. There's some regression that's going to take place. I do feel like, again, just for Joe Burrow's sake, typically, again, you're thinking, like, oh, well, there's Mahomes. There's Josh Allen. And then there's Herbert. He's gonna join them this year.

And Burrow just kind of, like, dunks on all these guys, right? I think Burrow's-- despite the fact that he is the number one overall pick-- and again, I think that sort of plays into your side of this here. They're not overlooked. They're not disrespected. He was the number one overall pick. He's whatever. He's supposed to be here. He's supposed to be this guy. But he is that guy. And I think we kind of don't talk about that enough.

And then for Zac Taylor too, I definitely think Zac Taylor is a guy that does not get discussed enough. And even still in some circles of, like, football media or football fans-- almost, like, pick on Zac Taylor or, like, constantly are looking to because he was in that group of, like, oh, you had a cup of coffee with Sean McVay. And you got hired or whatever. But he's been-- whether you pick nits at, like, the scheme sometimes, he's been an incredible culture changer there and a guy from the Bills-Bengals game that got canceled. I gained a lot of respect for him generally there. But I think even before that, he was a guy that was showing, like, no, he is a culture changing force in that building. And, you know, him and Burrow I do think sort of, kind of, maybe a little bit get overlooked in the national discussion.

ANDY BEHRENS: Yeah, I guess that's fair. But it's just-- it's really a testament to how-- again, how loaded the AFC is and how many incredible quarterback talent there are there and how many impressive offenses. Shout out to Brian Callahan. I thought, like, he called a great game, right? Especially-- man, the first couple of scoring drives for Cincinnati, guys were so open. Burrow obviously playing very well. But Callahan, I think, has already interviewed for the Indy job. You know, teams are coming for these coordinators in Cincinnati.

So that's gonna be a byproduct of success there-- is that they're gonna have to make coaching changes each year because those guys were really impressive. Ja'Marr Chase was silly. Burrow was silly. I was going back and forth with Eric Edholm a little bit on this. Burrow threw some incompletions that were among the best passes of the day, right? Just pinpoint accuracy downfield, put it on, like, the hand of his receiver in a situation where, like, only his guy could catch it. And I don't know. I don't know how he dropped it there.

I thought he was at his absolute best. And he was making some of those throws, like, you know, on the move, you know, scooting up in the pocket just ahead of the line of scrimmage. And he would just throw a dart 25 yards down the field-- just a brilliant game by him. The non-catch by Ja'Marr Chase--

MATT HARMON: I was gonna say, that was an incredible throw.

ANDY BEHRENS: --for the near-touchdown. What a throw. Like, what just an absolute dart-- no other place to put that. And then you combine that with ridiculous receiving talent. We'll talk about-- I think there's a conversation to be had about, like, Buffalo's receiving corps beyond Stefon Diggs.

MATT HARMON: Oh, yeah.

ANDY BEHRENS: That is not a worry in Cincinnati because they just have three really, really good players, one of whom is just a generational talent, right? Chase is ridiculous. You know, I think it was on the-- it may have been on the ESPN pregame. I forget who it was. Somebody was talking about how excellent Ja'Marr Chase is in terms of, like, how fluid his hips are and how that guy can basically go, like, 0-to-100. He's already-- the lower body is already rotated when he's catching the pass, and he's ready to just go. And you saw that. You saw that, like, five times in the game against Buffalo where, like, he hauls in a pass.

And he never-- you know, he never assumes the catch, right? He's always-- he's always locked in on the ball, makes the catch. But his legs are, like, pointing in entirely different direction. And he is ready to just take off. He's just-- he's just thrilling. Burrow was damn near perfect again. He threw, like, three different incompletions that were better than any ball that, like, Daniel Jones or Dak Prescott threw all day.