Young gun Joe Burrow joins exclusive club with Dan Marino

Second-year QB Joe Burrow is on a pace of passing touchdowns not seen since Dan Marino’s second year in the league.

[mm-video type=video id=01fhp0bhw640xn7ya9r2 playlist_id=01eqbw0bft20de1r4d player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01fhp0bhw640xn7ya9r2/01fhp0bhw640xn7ya9r2-6ff334316b69dc1416d8098ae0ca4f45.jpg]

It’s safe to say Joe Burrow is recovered from his ACL injury. He’s one of the biggest reasons the Bengals are 3-2 through five weeks. He has 11 touchdowns and almost 1,300 yards.

The best part is he’s been consistent with his touchdown passes. He has at least two touchdown passes in all five games so far in 2021 (he threw three against the Steelers in Week 3). And this is all in just his second year in the NFL.

Only one other second-year quarterback has thrown two or more touchdowns in each of the first five games of a season in the Super Bowl era and that is Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino in 1984.

As you can see, Burrow had joined Marino and two other Hall of Fame quarterbacks, Peyton Manning in 1999 and Kurt Warner in 1999, as second-year quarterbacks to throw two touchdowns in each of the first four games of their second season.

If Burrow wants to match Marino’s mark from that 1984 season, he’ll need to throw a pair of touchdowns over the next five games, as Marino’s mark reached ten games with at least a pair before throwing just one in his 11th game of the year. That would mark the only game of that season in which Marino did not throw at least two touchdowns, a season that also saw Marino finish with four straight games of four touchdown throws.

Cincinnati’s next five games are at Detroit, at Baltimore, at the Jets, vs Cleveland, at Las Vegas. Their bye comes after Cleveland.

[listicle id=47414]