After a disappointing 2023 campaign riddled with injuries to their star players, the Cincinnati Bengals’ offense enters the upcoming NFL season with some potential contract issues with their dynamic WR duo of Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, which could impact the fantasy outlook of quarterback Joe Burrow in 2024.
Can fantasy managers expect a bounce-back year for Burrow with some question marks surrounding his top pass-catching options this season?
Joe Burrow’s 2024 Fantasy Forecast
To call Burrow’s QB25 overall finish in 2023, a disappointment feels like a major understatement.
Burrow’s numbers resembled his rookie season, where he ironically finished as the QB25 and only appeared in 10 games, too.
Burrow’s 2023 campaign came to an abrupt halt in Week 11 after suffering a ligament injury in his right wrist. This ended Burrow’s up-and-down 2023 campaign, throwing for just 2,309 yards, 15 TDs, and six INTs over his 10 games of action.
It is also worth noting that Burrow entered the season with a calf injury, and his disappointing production through the first four games of the year certainly suggests that the injury was affecting his play on the field.
Joe Burrow Fantasy Performances Week 1-4
- Week 1: 82 passing yards, 0 TDs, 0 INTs (QB31)
- Week 2: 222 passing yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT (QB21)
- Week 3: 259 passing yards, 0 TDs, 1 INT (QB26)
- Week 4: 165 passing yards, 0 TDs, 0 INTs (QB28)
This rough start to the year had Burrow sitting as the QB31 overall in fantasy football.
As you are aware, there are only 32 teams in the NFL. This production made Burrow almost droppable after the first four games of the season.
Yet, as both Burrow and Higgins started to get healthier, Burrow’s fantasy production jumped back to QB1 territory in the middle of the year.
Joe Burrow Fantasy Performances Weeks 8-10
- Week 8: 283 passing yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs (QB4)
- Week 9: 348 passing yards, 2 TDs, 0 INTs (QB6)
- Week 10: 347 passing yards, 2 TDs, 2 INTs (QB7)
This return to fantasy stardom put Burrow as the QB6 overall during that span, which is the type of production many fantasy managers expected when they used fifth-round draft capital on him heading into the 2023 season.
We already mentioned his injury in Week 11 that put an end to his lackluster year, which does raise some question marks about his fantasy value heading into the 2024 season.
Sure, we know Chase is a surefire stud WR1. Yet, the options past Chase all bring some question marks to the table this year.
Higgins could be in a major contract dispute with the organization, Tyler Boyd signed with the Tennessee Titans, and Joe Mixon is now with the Houston Texans. This Bengals’ offense could have a very different feel in 2024.
Not all of the changes were necessarily bad, though. Cincinnati selected talented Alabama WR Jermaine Burton in the third round, who has plenty of physical tools and vertical speed to give Burrow a weapon that can threaten opposing defenses on all three levels of the field this year.
However, the Bengals’ offense doesn’t feel like a lock to be a top-five unit in 2024 with all of these changes and unknown situations at the moment.
Burrow is still being highly respected by the fantasy community with his ADP of No. 61 overall as the QB7 off the board. This puts him slightly behind C.J. Stroud and Anthony Richardson and just ahead of Jordan Love and Dak Prescott.
The ceiling argument makes sense for both Stroud and Richardson ahead of Burrow. Stroud is loaded with playmakers — even more so than Burrow — and Richardson’s dual-threat ability gives him a rushing floor that Burrow can’t touch. But Burrow’s high fantasy floor when healthy definitely feels a bit more established than these two quarterbacks currently going ahead of him.
Burrow’s price tag in the sixth round is appropriate for a signal-caller with a QB1 overall ceiling. Ultimately, I’m a believer in Burrow, which means I think he is going to remind everyone fairly quickly how dominant he can be when healthy.
I would feel comfortable taking Burrow in the fifth round of fantasy drafts.