Is It Truly Now or Never for Joe Burrow and the Bengals This Season?

Joe Burrow keeps stepping to a podium in a slow August week and saying things that get taken apart word by word. This time he handed everybody the words himself.

"I'm trying to put it out into the world. I'm trying to manifest it," Burrow said. "I'm trying to show our guys the urgency that I have and that I want us to have as an organization to go and make it happen. You can keep pushing it down the road or you can talk about it now and say this is the year. I'm tired of saying next year, next year, next year. This is it."

Asked directly whether it has to be now or never, Burrow did not blink. "That's how I'm treating it, for sure."

Rich loved it, and made the caveat first. Yes, the show has spent weeks parsing every syllable out of Cincinnati. No, they are not the only ones doing it. Slow week, three hours to fill.

What matters is that this tracks with everything Burrow has said about this roster. Rich pointed to the way Burrow answers questions about his team by pointing back to what he said about his LSU team before the big season. He believes in this one the same way.

The now-or-never framing also connects to a heavier subject. Burrow was open about being down last year, saying from the podium that the Bengals had broken him, that his body or the injury gods kept finding ways to sideline him. Rich read this summer's tone as the answer to that. Burrow feels good. He looks at his team and sees a winning team, and the next-year-next-year-next-year cycle can go to hell.

Dexter Lawrence being there is a real part of the excitement. The choice, as Rich framed it, was between adding somebody to protect Burrow and adding somebody for the middle of the defense who gets him back on the field faster, so Burrow does not have to score 15 touchdowns to win. Cincinnati took the defender, and better scheme and better results are supposed to follow.

Bengals fans should be excited, and the comparison Rich reached for explains why. Burrow has been to a Super Bowl once. That is still more than most of the guys drafted around him and paid like him. There is a two-time MVP in Baltimore who has never made it. Justin Herbert across the street has all the talent in the world and has not won a playoff game. Trevor Lawrence went first overall and has not gotten past the divisional round. Burrow has actually made it. He can figure it out, he is damn good, and he has incredible talent around him.

The pushback from the desk was that Burrow has been dining out on that Super Bowl appearance, and that it is time to make an All-Pro team and get into the MVP hunt.

Rich would not have it. Burrow has not lost his talent. His body has failed him, his protection has failed him, his front office has failed him, and a lot of things outside his control have failed him. He also got what he asked for. There was the old stick-figure debate about drafting Penei Sewell to protect him, and Burrow pushed for Ja'Marr Chase instead. He wanted Tee Higgins given the bag, and Cincinnati did that too.

So it is on Joe now, with one honest asterisk: the quarterback does not play left tackle and he does not play defense. Everything has to work.

Keep him upright, Cincinnati, and go deep.