When looking back at the Cincinnati Bengals’ 2024 season, one word comes to mind and that’s disappointment. It didn’t matter that Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase both put up crazy numbers, the Bengals still finished 9-8 and just outside the playoff picture.
The fact that the Bengals even got to 9-8 after the way their season started is pretty incredible, however. After Burrow and the Bengals fell to 0-3 with a Week 3 loss to the Washington Commanders on Monday Night Football, it felt like any chance of them making the playoffs were slim, even with the team’s history of slow starts and strong finishes.
There were no punts in that 38-33 Commanders win and it was a game where the Bengals’ lack of defensive strength really shined through. Even with that being the case, this was an opportunity for talking heads to really go all-in at criticizing Burrow with Chris Canty unloading on the Bengals quarterback during an appearance on ESPN’s Unsportsmanlike Radio. Canty said that “Joe Burrow let Joe Burrow down” and how he also let the offense and the team down.
Of course, as we know, Burrow went on to put up MVP-like numbers (and there’s a strong chance he’d have won the award if Cincinnati had managed to sneak into the playoffs) and the Commanders weren’t a slouch, reaching the postseason and winning a playoff game for the first time since 2005. Heck, the Commanders made it all the way to the NFC Championship Game, so for Canty to act like Burrow and the Bengals stunk for losing to Jayden Daniels’ Commanders is quite funny now when you know how the season panned out.
That’s why it wasn’t shocking to see Canty’s take named as one of the worst takes of the NFL season. Kyle Koster of Sports Illustrated put together a list of the five worst takes during this past year and Canty’s rant on Burrow made the cut.
Chris Canty’s rant against Joe Burrow one of the worst takes of the year
This checks out. Going in this direction with the criticism so early in the season is only bound to make you look silly later on. No the Bengals didn’t make the playoffs but Burrow had his best season statically and it was proven that the Commanders weren’t the pushover that people thought they were heading into that game.
It’s also wild to blame Burrow for that loss in the first place considering he threw for over 300 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions. Sure, football is a team sport but saying that Burrow let his team down was such a stretch even before we knew how the season played out.
