Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow is heading into his rookie training camp as the first overall pick in the 2020 NFL draft, having signed a contract that guarantees him more than $36 million over his first four NFL seasons. But it could have gone very differently.
Burrow was not considered a top prospect a year ago, and amid increasing talk that the college football season will be canceled, Burrow says he’s not even sure if he’d be in the NFL at all right now if the pandemic had come a year earlier.
“I feel for all college athletes right now. I hope their voices are heard by the decision makers. If this happened a year ago I may be looking for a job right now,” Burrow wrote on Twitter.
There’s certainly some truth to what Burrow is saying: A lost college football season is a lost opportunity for college football players to show their stuff to the NFL. And some college football players who have the talent to make it to the NFL will never get the chance to show it.