LATEST UPDATE : Joe Burrow sends message ahead of Cincinnati Bengals 2024 season : view

The former Heisman Trophy has a new primary objective. Former LSU standout and Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow is eager to get back on the practice field after missing the entire season due to a wrist injury. He worked on his body throughout the offseason and is sending a message to the rest of the NFL that he will be bigger and stronger than before. “I’m eating more, I’m more dialed as far as nutrition and food schedule and eating when I need to so that’s been a big area of emphasis for me and I’ve seen the results,” Burrow told Bengals.com. “I am bigger. It’s definitely bigger.

I’m much stronger and bigger than I was before. We’re going to keep eating well, lifting, and following my regimen to see where I’m at.”

Burrow and the Bengals will try to capture perhaps the NFL’s most difficult division, the AFC North, where all four teams finished last season with winning records. That is the first time this has happened since 1935, and it ends Cincinnati’s two-year reign at the top after Baltimore earned the conference’s top overall seed.

Burrow, who is in his fifth season and has five postseason wins and a Super Bowl berth to his record, is the third former LSU star to be taken first overall in the draft, following Billy Cannon (1960) and JaMarcus Russell (2007). Burrow, who grew up in Ohio, began his collegiate career at Ohio State before announcing a transfer after the 2017 season and eventually deciding to transfer to LSU with two years of eligibility remaining.

While Burrow was solid in his first year as a starter after transferring in from Ohio State—57.8 percent completion, 2,894 yards, and 16

touchdowns, five interceptions, and a remarkable display of toughness and leadership—everything he accomplished in guiding the Tigers to a Fiesta Bowl triumph in 2018 was merely a preview of what was to come the next season.

In 2019, Burrow had arguably the finest passing season in college football history, guiding LSU to a 15-0 record and the school’s first national championship since 2007. Burrow completed 402 of 527 passes (76.3 percent) for 5,671 yards and 60 touchdowns to six.

He set team and national records for interceptions while also earning the Heisman Trophy. Burrow Cannon became only the second LSU athlete in history to win college football’s most prestigious player accolade, doing it in December.

In addition to the Heisman, Burrow won the Maxwell Award, Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, Davey O’Brien Award, and Walter Camp Award in 2019, making him one of the most decorated college quarterbacks in recent decades.