Brian Callahan sees a key similarity between Bengals’ Joe Burrow and Peyton Manning that not many can claim

Just because Brian Callahan has moved on from the Cincinnati Bengals, it has not slowed him down from talking highly of his former players.

Joe Burrow is great and that is no secret to anyone who has a grasp of the current NFL. He is one of the better quarterbacks in the game and only a few can challenge him.  

In a recent podcast appearance on The Athletic Football Show via The Athletic, Callahan compared Burrow to a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame that he was able to coach early in his coaching career.

“And Joe’s sort of in the similar mold that Peyton [Manning] is in, in terms of his processing and his quickness and his accuracy. A lot of these things we did in Denver fit him,” Callahan explains.

Being compared to one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game in multiple key phases of the game is being held to high regard, to say the least. Callahan got his offensive coaching start with the Denver Broncos and was with the team from 2010 until 2015. Callahan was a member of their Super Bowl-winning team with Manning under center.

Manning was named a Pro Bowler 13 times and won five different MVP awards throughout his career. The difference between the two has been health. Manning was on the back end of his career before he had any injury issues and Burrow has had trouble staying healthy earlier in his career. Between the knee injury as a rookie and the wrist injury last season, health has been a red flag for Burrow in his first few years. 

Burrow has had two of his first four NFL seasons cut short due to season-ending injuries. When he is on the field, he elevates the Bengals into a different-level team that can compete for it all. The reason being has a lot of what Callahan compared between Manning and Burrow to do with it.

Cincinnati needs Burrow to stay healthy and have more time on the field showing his Manning-like abilities to reach their big picture. Don’t rule out 2024 being the year that happens. If Burrow can end his career anywhere close to what Manning accomplished in his, I believe that Bengals fans would be more than happy with the outcome.