Jimmy Johnson isn't shocked to see Joe Burrow in the Super Bowl in his second season with the Cincinnati Bengals, in large part because he received tremendous intel on the former LSU Tiger before he was selected with the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.
The Hall of Fame head coach told FS1's Colin Cowherd this week that his former offensive coordinator with the Dallas Cowboys, Norv Turner, raved to him about Burrow after seeing him work out in the lead up to the NFL Draft:
"...I had some inside information. My buddy -- who worked for me and really knows offense -- Norv Turner worked with Jordan Palmer working out all the quarterbacks in California [before the draft] for three or four years. ... He called after he worked out Burrow and he said 'He is the best that I've ever seen.' This was before the draft. He said 'This guy is something else. Every pass is [made with] pinpoint accuracy. He's got the swagger, he's got such confidence. He's got unbelievable confidence and that carries over to the people around him.' So Norv told me about him off the bat, and that's one reason why everybody was trying to trade up to get him."
The Bengals resisted overtures from other interested teams -- most notably, the Miami Dolphins -- to trade up for Burrow in advance of the 2020 NFL Draft. We'll probably never know exactly what was offered to Mike Brown and the Bengals for the right to draft Burrow, but it's hard to imagine an amount of picks that would get them to part with the 25-year-old now.
Burrow was named the NFL's Comeback Player of the Year Thursday, after his rookie season was ended prematurely by a torn ACL. He's helped the Bengals -- who hadn't won a playoff game since 1990 before this January -- to win three straight postseason games. Sunday evening, he'll have a chance to deliver the first Super Bowl title in the history of the franchise.
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