[jwplayer H1GrZT6a]
It’s easy to shine the spotlight on Joe Burrow and Chase Young as a No. 1 vs. No. 2 battle when the Cincinnati Bengals visit the Washington Football Team this weekend.
But just as interesting is what if? territory.
If the Bengals had opted to pass on quarterback and take Young to boost a still-struggling pass-rush, would Washington have selected Burrow?
The answer is 100-percent yes, according to WFT head coach Ron Rivera.
While Rivera says Young “was the obvious choice for us,” he admitted Burrow would’ve been the pick if he was there, per Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com:
“We think Joe is the full package. We really do. We think Chase is the full package. Depending on what Cincinnati did, that’s what we were going to do. The opposite. We didn’t think we would lose out either way. We really didn’t. We think both players are going to be great players and have great careers and we’re fired up that we have Chase.”
There are some important takeaways here. One, the Bengals got it right. Any conversation about taking someone other than Burrow was always foolish — he was the quarterback everyone wanted.
And two, on a Washington slant, it makes it pretty clear Rivera was never fully sold on Dwayne Haskins, WFT’s first-round pick in 2019. Haskins never got a fair shake last year, his head coach got fired midseason and he ended up getting benched this year.
That all makes this weekend more interesting than it has any right to be as teams with a combined four wins collide. There’s draft positioning at stake, but the fact the Bengals got it right would seemingly make a loss inexcusable.
And funnily enough, Burrow or Young are impactful enough that they could make the play that decides the contest.
[listicle id=39258]