Joe Burrow Week 1 Outlook - Bengals at Browns
By Derek Brown (FantasyPros), Sun, Sep 10th 2023, 12:05pm EDT
Typically, there isn't much to think about when Joe Burrow is quarterbacking your fantasy team. You simply throw him into your starting lineup and feel good about having him there. Burrow isn't quite a no-brainer play this week, considering that he's coming back from a calf injury that forced him to miss nearly all of training camp and also has a tricky Week 1 matchup against the Browns in Cleveland. The calf injury will probably keep Burrow from doing much running. As one of the best pure passers in the league, Burrow is capable of doing major damage with his arm, but the Cleveland pass defense is formidable. The Browns' pass defense ranked 12th in DVOA last season and allowed the second-fewest fantasy points to opposing QBs. In his two games against the Browns last season, Burrow averaged 235.5 passing yards, throwing for under 240 yards in both games, and had four TD passes and two interceptions. You're almost certainly going to start Burrow this week unless you're in a six-team fantasy league, but this doesn't set up as a smash game for Cincinnati's swaggy QB.