Bengals QB Joe Burrow Has Found Another Skill to Master, Weaponizing Snap Cadence at League-Leading Level

Jay Morrison | 16 Hours Ago

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow (9) counts off in the first quarter of the NFL Week 2 game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Cincinnati Bengals at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. The Bengals led 16-10 at halftime. / Sam Greene/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

CINCINNATI – Something happened in last week’s Cincinnati Bengals win against the Cleveland Browns that was rare, but at the same time increasingly common.

Joe Burrow got the Browns to jump offsides on the Bengals first offensive snap of the game and the last.

The bookend nature was the rare part.

But Burrow successfully using cadence to gain an advantage has become a staple of the offense.

“It’s the ultimate weapon. He really is the best in the business,” Cincinnati head coach Zac Taylor said of Burrow after Sunday’s 24-6 win.

The numbers back that up.

The Bengals have drawn 12 offsides/neutral zone infraction penalties this season, which is the most in the league.

And that doesn’t include three others that were declined, the most recent of which was the final play Sunday when Burrow got reigning Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett to jump offsides and used the free play to throw a 32-yard touchdown to Ja’Marr Chase with 1:44 remaining.

.@joeyb to @Real10jayy__#ProBowlVote + Joe Burrow#ProBowlVote + Ja'Marr Chase#CLEvsCIN on CBS pic.twitter.com/vmCKymoBSF

— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) December 22, 2024

The other two penalties Burrow induced but were declined were against Pittsburgh’s T.J. Watt and Las Vegas’ Maxx Crosby.

You know you’re the best in the business when you’re victimizing the best in the business.

“What I'll say for him, and really for (center) Ted Karras, too, they're the two best guys I've ever been around in terms of really taking ownership of that and then even coming up with some variations on their own," offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher said. "They've bought into the fact that that truly is a weapon.”

“That's awesome as a coach because if it's you trying to drive it all the time as a coach trying to convince them that this is useful and we need to do this, you're never gonna get the mileage out of it that you want to get out of it."

When Burrow got Watt to jump in Week 13, he used the free play to throw a deep ball to Tee Higgins, resulting in a 24-yard pass interference penalty.

When he caught Crosby in Week 9, Crosby get coming and hit him, drawing a 15-yard penalty and a $11,255 fine.

Burrow also got Garrett in the Week 7 game in Cleveland and victimized Dallas’ Micah Parsons in Week 14.

Including the declined penalty on the Chase touchdown, Burrow has used his cadence to induce six penalties in the last three games, all of which were wins.

“I think this is the best situational cadence team that I've been a part of,” said Karras, who played five seasons in New England with Tom Brady.

“Joe does an amazing job of getting the response that we want out of the defense.”

And that’s not always making someone jump offsides.

Burrow’s ability to quickly process what he’s seeing has been labeled his superpower by his coaches, and using staggered cadence can cause the defense to take false steps in more directions than forward into the neutral zone.

“You have such a convincing cadence that you get the safety shell to start rotate, and now you get a pre-snap indication of what the coverage is going to be,” Pitcher said. “You get the linebackers to start to tip a blitz so you can re-direct the protection.

“And then maybe there's other times you go up and boom, you snap it on first sound,” he continued. “And then maybe there's other times you go up and boom, you snap it on first sound. “So now if you're a defensive linemen, where do you live? Are you in the world of where 'I've got to be ready to go on the first sound' or 'I've got to be holding my water for 20 seconds as he goes through three cadences'? That's the kind of indecision and the kind of doubt we want to put in their minds.”

Last year the Bengals drew seven penalties due to cadence before Burrow injured his wrist in week 11.

That was the fifth best at the time.

They added another five in Weeks 12-18 with Jake Browning running the offense.

In Burrow’s last full season in 2022, he only drew seven flags with his cadence, which ranked 14th.

“I think I’ve taken a step in that department this year,” Burrow said. “A guy that comes to mind is Aaron Rodgers. He's been known to get free plays for his whole career, and I think that's something I'd like to be known by, too.

“But it's not just the quarterback involved, it's everybody understanding each play and what we want to do with the cadence on each play,” he added. “Whether it's making fake calls, demeanor, a lot of different things go into it when you're changing up the cadence.”

That’s part of the reason for Burrow’s profanity-laced conversation with Taylor on the sideline in Tennessee a couple of weeks ago.

The Bengals had 11 offensive penalties in that game, including six false starts, one of which came on the first snap of the game.

The six false starts were the most in the league this year, and since 2012 only the 2023 Carolina Panthers (eight) and 2022 Philadelphia Eagles (seven) had more in a game.

Five of the six false starts were committed by rookies, with rarely used Cam Grandy (three) and Matt Lee (one) accounting for four of them.

That’s where an elaborate cadence package can backfire.

But that game was an outlier, and Burrow’s growth with his cadence has mostly worked well for the Cincinnati offense and defense.

“He does a great job with it, and I think that helps us obviously as we go through OTAs and training camp,” Bengals defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo said. “Joe has his God-given ability, but he also has that innate football awareness and instincts that you can't teach. He sees it, and he's totally under control at all times. And that is a rare, rare thing when you can get all those things together, and that's what you're seeing on Sundays. It’s been amazing.

“He's gotten how many guys lately? We're kind of on a streak there,” Anarumo added. “He's elite at a lot of things. He's elite at that, too.”

It’s been part of Burrow’s evolution as he gets older and sees more in the league. When he’s not focused on recovering from injuries or managing them, he spends a lot of time working on the little nuances of the position, such as cadence.

And it’s adding up to him having the best year of an already stellar start to his career.

“The more football you play, the more you start to focus on little things like that that can really make a difference,” Burrow said. “I think that's what separates the great players from the good players.”

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