Nick Wright has no problem calling out the talking points on other sports talk shows that he doesn’t feel align with reality. The star of FS1’s First Things First has already tangled with Dan Orlovsky for calling Josh Allen “overrated.” And now, he’s beating the Joe Burrow drum, taking issue with the idea that the Cincinnati Bengals quarterback has somehow been bad the past two seasons.
There are plenty of sports media figures Wright could be talking about, especially with Burrow fodder all the rage right now. But one particularly interesting Burrow take came on Wright’s own network, with ex-Green Bay Packers wide receiver James Jones claiming on The Facility that Burrow hasn’t been good the last two seasons.
Wright responded to the growing narrative about Burrow on FTF Thursday.
“I have found the Joe Burrow commentary the past 72 hours bordering on hysterical, and not bordering on, but just full-blown ludicrous,” says Wright. “There is so much ‘Where is this energy for Joe that we had for Lamar (Jackson); that we had for Josh Allen?’ It’s a lot like if…Kevin Durant struggles in a playoff series, and they’re like, ‘Where’s the energy you have for Joel Embiid for Kevin Durant?’ Well, they’re different guys with different histories, and that matters with how we talk about them.
“Joe Burrow is a spectacular quarterback that is his only real weakness when healthy is he is somewhat physically limited. He doesn’t have the strongest arm; he’s not the most agile; he’s not the strongest. Like, he is able to achieve at a super high level, despite the fact that he’s probably around league average, as far as measurable. Which is why he is a guy that if he’s not close to a 100 percent, looks terrible. His calf is a little banged up; he can’t play well. If (Kevin) Wildes is right that his wrist is legitimately still hurt, it shows up.
“But this idea that’s been propagated online and by other talk show hosts, ‘Oh, he’s been bad for two years,’ is a lie. It’s nonsense. We had a conversation on this show last year. Going into the game, he hurt his wrist; could he win the MVP of the league? Because after the opening four weeks last year — once his calf got healthy — this is what he did. What he did Weeks 5-9, oh, he looked like the best quarterback in the league. And that was coming off a two-year stretch where…he was the second-best quarterback in the league.
“When people are like, ‘Why are we doing this? Why aren’t we giving Joe Burrow more margin than we give Lamar, or we give Josh Allen at times?’ Because we’ve seen Joe Burrow win in big spots and play great in big spots that those guys haven’t. We have seen Joe Burrow go into Josh Allen’s house in the playoffs and out-play him when Josh laid an egg. We’ve seen Joe Burrow have two playoff runs better than any one playoff run Lamar has had. That’s why. That is what you earn…Listen, am I worried about him? If his wrist is really still hurt, he will not be good.
“Do I think we’ve overrated Joe Burrow? Do I think, ‘ Oh, time for the receipts on Joe Burrow?’ I think people are idiots. I think he’s clearly one of the best quarterbacks in the league and has been for the last four years.”
That wasn’t the only issue Wright had as it relates to Burrow and sports media.
“This is a note to my colleagues in sports media, sports Twitter, it’s become even more of a cesspool of inaccurately or unfairly clipped short videos, and then some of those faceless, nameless aggregation accounts will post the video and be like, ‘People are saying…’ There are three things that happened this weekend that it went viral,” said Wright. “One was ‘Aaron Rodgers already ignoring Nat Hackett.’ Another one was, ‘Joel Bitonio won’t accept a hand from Deshaun Watson.’ Oh, and the other one was, ‘Joe Burrow can’t hold a water bottle; people are talking.’
“They are all dumb…Folks, stop asking the athletes about the dumb things. Fake people on the internet turned into a story. Someone asked Joe Burrow yesterday, ‘Can you pick up a water bottle?’ We’re just getting dumber and dumber by the day…”
[ First Things First , Nick Wright ]
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