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Joe Burrow Making Case for MVP

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Craig Ellenport | Last updated Nov 8, 2026 3:41 PM ET

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Joe Burrow came into Week 9 of the 2026 NFL season as an MVP candidate. After the Cincinnati Bengals’ successful trip to Madrid, Burrow returns home as the MVP favorite.

Burrow completed 24 of 29 pass attempts for 271 yards and three touchdown passes Sunday, adding a rushing touchdown, as the Bengals defeated the Atlanta Falcons 34-17 at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid. Burrow leads the NFL with 23 touchdown passes. In the last four games, he’s thrown 16 TD passes and rushed for two more. More importantly, the Bengals have won four straight and are now tied with the Pittsburgh Steelers for first place in the AFC North.

That sets up a monster “Sunday Night Football” game in Week 10 as Pittsburgh visits Cincinnati. The Bengals lost in Pittsburgh, 30-27, on a late field goal in Week 3.

“To be 6-2 right now is a big deal,” head coach Zac Taylor said after the game. “Going home, we have a major divisional game coming our way against Pittsburgh. They’ve already gotten us once this year.”

Looking at past performance, we really should have seen this coming. Last season was the third time in Burrow’s career in which injuries prevented him from starting more than 10 games. The first two times that happened, he was the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year the following season. After tearing his ACL and MCL as a rookie in 2020, he led the Bengals to the Super Bowl a year later. A wrist injury ended his 2023 season after 10 games; in 2024, Burrow led the NFL with 4,918 passing yards and 43 TDs.

Burrow only started eight games last season after suffering a severe toe injury. The Bengals missed the playoffs for the third straight season. They entered the 2026 season with lingering questions about the defense and pressure on Taylor.

Whether or not he wins another Comeback Player of the Year award, Burrow has carried this team through the first half of the season, and he’s made the most of his dynamic wide receiver duo. Ja’Marr Chase (7) and Tee Higgins (6) have combined for 13 TD receptions. Higgins had a pair Sunday, but it was the 47-yard score by Chase that put he and his quarterback in elite company.

Burrow and Chase have hooked up for touchdowns of 40 or more yards 19 times — tied for the third-most passing scores of that distance. Burrow and Chase are the only players on this list who are not (yet) in the Pro Football Hall of Fame:

“There’s so many huge plays that really are just meant to be underneath completions, that he turns into explosive plays,” Taylor said of Chase. “At any moment, you’ve got to be ready for him to transition what is a five-yard completion into a 40-yard gain. That’s just Ja’Marr Chase. Best in the world.”

Burrow has thrown 55 of his 180 career touchdown passes to Chase — the most scoring connections by any quarterback-wide receiver duo since Chase entered the NFL in 2021.

If they stay healthy, the trio of Burrow, Chase and Higgins are likely to end the Bengals’ playoff drought. Burrow, an MVP favorite at midseason, wants more than that.

“Joe is playing at an unbelievably high level right now,” Taylor said. “It’s difficult to not put the ball in his hand in every play given how everybody is playing around him as well. We just got to keep this momentum going.”

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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