Tom Brady praises toughness of Joe Burrow, draws comparisons to NFL greats

Legendary and now retired NFL quarterback Tom Brady joined the Let’s Go! podcast on Monday, where he heaped some serious praise to Cincinnati Bengals second-year quarterback Joe Burrow. One of Brady’s favorite parts of Burrow’s game is his toughness.

As a rookie last season, Burrow played in 10 games before suffering a torn ACL that ended his season. He battled back in time for this season, and has elevated his play to an entirely new level.

“I love it,” Brady said of Burrow’s toughness. “I love it because the quarterback, there’s very few ways to display toughness. We don’t play at the line of scrimmage, we don’t have to block, we don’t tackle, we don’t hit anybody. But the way we can show our toughness is to stand in the pocket and make throws. Sometimes you get the s*** knocked out of you and you’ve got to just get up and move on to the next play. You don’t want to every show anyone, ‘Man, he really got me good on that.’

“So I think what I love about Joe’s game is he does just that. He gets knocked down, he gets back up and he’s ready for the next play. I think the team gains a lot of confidence from that because the team needs to know that the quarterback’s going to be there week in and week out. Yeah, you have some tough injuries, ACL injuries that you just can’t. That’s the reality of that injury. But there’s a lot of things that you can overcome.”

Brady compared Burrow’s toughness to some NFL greats

When speaking about Burrow’s toughness, Brady made some very lofty comparisons, mentioning him alongside players like Peyton Manning and Brett Favre.

Burrow’s toughness is on display every Sunday, though. He was sacked 32 times as a rookie and 51 times this regular season, adding 12 more through three playoff games. Regardless, Burrow gets up and stays focused on what’s ahead.

“Even watching Jimmy Garoppolo (in the NFC Championship), he banged up his thumb up really badly. He overcame that to get his team to that position. Matthew Stafford has had a lot of injuries in his career that he’s really toughed out. Some of the great qualities in quarterbacks is toughness. Brett Favre is a guy – everybody loves Brett Favre for a lot of reasons,” added Brady. “But what Brett did from the quarterback position, staying in the pocket and out of the pocket, made play after play and was as tough as they come.

“Peyton Manning had an incredible streak of games before his neck injury. Being available to the team is critical because they need to count on you. Joe stands in there and makes the plays. He gets knocked down, he gets back up. And from a defensive standpoint, that’s a little discouraging, too. They see you get up and they’re like, ‘S***! I can’t get this guy out of the game.’ It’s a pretty good feeling when you know you’ve accomplished that from a quarterback standpoint.”

Burrow has battled through some minor issues this season. He has thrown for over 4,600 yards with 34 touchdowns, and is undoubtedly established now as one of the NFL’s best and most promising quarterbacks.