Joe Burrow sees a bright future for Bengals offense despite rough 1st day of training camp

CINCINNATI (AP) — Quarterback Joe Burrow said that the Cincinnati Bengals offense played "poorly" on the first day of training camp Wednesday. But with a healthy unit that's fully participating in practices this season, Burrow is more optimistic than he has ever been about the offense hitting the ground running during the regular season. "When we have guys back like we do, you know, it should be seamless," Burrow said. "Year in and year out, game in and game out. It wasn't today. So we'll watch the tape and get better from that, but you know, we have the guys in the room that have done it before, and that feels good." Burrow led the NFL with 4,918 passing yards and 43 touchdowns last season, but he said that statically his focus this year is on completion rate even after having a career-best 70.6% accuracy in 2024, which was fourth in the league. With all of the offense's top players from last season returning, Burrow has a strong supporting cast around him. As the unit practices this summer, coach Zac Taylor said that the group is balancing building on its strengths with staying fresh and adding new elements. "You want to continue to do the things we think we're excellent at and make people prove they can stop it," Taylor said. "But at the same time, you have to evolve what you're doing. We feel people are going to spend a lot of time studying us in the offseason to make sure they can hit the ground running if they play us early in the season." Unlike previous seasons, Burrow will get a lot of time and reps in the training camp and in the preseason to go through that process. In 2020, training camp was shortened because of the pandemic. In 2021, Burrow was limited during the summer as he recovered from a torn ACL. In 2022, Burrow had an emergency appendectomy during training camp. In 2023, he strained his calf. At this point last year, he was limited during several practices as he worked back from a wrist injury. "Right now, there is none of that," Taylor said. "He will participate every day like he normally would fully healthy. Then anticipate playing him more in games than we ever had." Burrow has said for years that he wants to play more in the preseason, and he'll get that opportunity this season. That's one of several changes in place to help the Bengals have a stronger start to the season. The Bengals have dropped their first two games in each of the past three seasons. Cincinnati is practicing in the morning during training camp, implementing more physical practices and also playing its starters more in the preseason. "I'm excited for the chance to get better," Burrow said. "Those are valuable reps that we haven't had in the past for good reason. I think we're making the right decision this year, and I think that's gonna benefit us in the long run."