There are two distinct images for us with Joe Burrow in 2020.

The first is the QB leading LSU to a National Championship, which he punctuated with a celebratory stogie.

The second was in his parents’ humble home, where he was drafted #1 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Joe Burrow arrived in Southwest Ohio with immediate savior expectations. Over his first six seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals, Burrow has validated every bit of that hype, establishing himself as a top-tier franchise quarterback whose elite accuracy, icy composure, and deep ball touch have redefined the modern era of Bengals football.

Burrow combines elite pre-snap processing with supreme pocket navigation and rare accuracy downfield. Rather than relying on raw arm velocity, he paralyzes opposing coverages with surgical ball placement, quick-trigger releases, and unflappable toughness when facing a collapsing pocket. His uncanny ability to read defensive leverage allows him to drop touch passes into tight boundary buckets for Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, making him one of the most lethal big-play passers in the NFL.

Burrow showed instant star potential during his 2020 rookie campaign, throwing for 2,688 yards and 13 touchdowns across 10 games before a severe torn ACL and PCL cut his debut short. He answered in 2021 with an unforgettable comeback, winning AP Comeback Player of the Year honors while leading the NFL with a 70.4% completion percentage alongside 4,611 passing yards and 34 touchdowns. His cold-blooded playmaking carried Cincinnati through a legendary postseason run to Super Bowl LVI.

He sustained that superstar trajectory in 2022, earning his first Pro Bowl selection after racking up 4,475 passing yards and 35 touchdowns while leading the Bengals back to the AFC Championship Game. A wrist injury restricted him to just 10 starts in 2023, but he returned with a vengeance in 2024 to deliver a career-best individual campaign. Burrow led the NFL in both passing yards (4,918) and passing touchdowns (43) with only nine interceptions, earning his second Pro Bowl selection and a fourth-place finish in MVP voting while keeping Cincinnati competitive despite team-wide defensive struggles.

Burrow's 2025 season presented another test of resilience when a midseason toe injury sidelined him for nine games. Upon returning in late November, he started the final six contests and ended the year with 1,809 passing yards, 17 touchdowns, and five interceptions across eight total starts. During that stretch, Burrow reached his 75th career game, becoming the third-fastest quarterback in NFL history to hit 150 career touchdown passes and the fifth-fastest to reach 20,000 passing yards.

As the Bengals prepare for the 2026 season, a fully healthy Burrow stands ready for his seventh NFL campaign. Entering his prime with a career completion percentage that ranks among the highest in league history, Burrow remains the ultimate catalyst capable of bringing Cincinnati its first Super Bowl trophy.

Yes, we know that this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team. That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists out and we always consistently look to update them when we can and based on necessity. As such, we are very happy to present our post 2022 revision of our top 50 Carolina Panthers.

As for all of our top 50 players in football we look at the following:

1. Advanced Statistics.

2. Traditional statistics and how they finished in the National Football League.

3. Playoff accomplishments.

4. Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles not reflected in a stat sheet.

Last year, Carolina had a bad year, though showed promise in the second half of the season. Nevertheless, the we have one new entry and one elevation.

As always, we present our top five, which had no changes.

1. Steve Smith

2. Cam Newton

3. Luke Kuechly

4. Julius Pepper

5. Ryan Kalil

You can find the entire list here.

Brian Burns, who is now a two-time Pro Bowler, enters the list at #41.

Offensive Tackle, Taylor Moton, moves to #45 from #50.

We welcome your input and comments and as always, we thank you for your support.

Drafted in the first round (16th overall) of the 2019 NFL Draft out of Florida State, Brian Burns arrived in Charlotte as an explosive, bendy edge rusher. Across his five seasons with the Carolina Panthers, Burns served as a bright spot during a challenging era for the franchise, constantly terrorizing opposing backfields with his speed off the corner.

Burns demonstrated a rare initial burst and ankle flexion in Carolina’s pass rush. Operating mainly from the outside edge, he employed a lightning-quick first step, a signature ghost-move, and an impressive dip-and-bend technique to effectively maneuver around offensive tackles. His speed in pursuit rendered him a formidable backfield playmaker against both passing dropbacks and perimeter run strategies.

Burns demonstrated an immediate impact during his rookie season in 2019, participating in all 16 games, including five starts, and recording 7.5 sacks as well as a 56-yard fumble return for a touchdown. Upon assuming a full-time starting role in 2020, he achieved 9.0 sacks, 21 quarterback hits, and three forced fumbles.

His ongoing development reached its peak with consecutive Pro Bowl selections in 2021 and 2022. The 2022 season was notably his best performance with the Panthers, achieving personal bests with 12.5 sacks, 17 tackles for loss, and 22 quarterback hits. Despite changes in defensive schemes and offensive difficulties within the team, Burns maintained consistency in 2023, recording 8.0 sacks and 16 tackles for loss.

After 2023, the Panthers tagged Burns non-exclusively in March 2024 and traded him to the Giants for draft picks. He ranked fifth on Carolina's sack list, with 246 tackles, 46.0 sacks, 59 TFL, 95 QB hits, and 8 forced fumbles.

After years of observing the Pro Football Hall of Fame process, and all Hall of Fames for that matter, one thing has always felt clear to me; Halls should begin 25 years after an institution begins. This alleviates any backlog that could happen, and often when discussions of the PFHOF occur, a common thread is how many great players have fallen through the cracks.

So… What if the PFHOF had their first class in January of 1946?

Why 1946?  We have always believed that sporting institutions should create a Hall of Fame when it turns 26.  In keeping with how votes transpire now, this means that, in this vision, the PFHOF began 17 years earlier, and, with that in place, conceivably, there would be no "log jam" of players on the outside looking in.  How many get in sooner, or conversely, how many did the Hall get wrong?

This is what we are doing here!

Invites went out to people who have displayed knowledge and passion of football’s history, and we followed the same pattern of the current PFHOF electoral process.

A Preliminary Vote with 130 players whose playing career ended by 1940. We are also following the structure in that players have 20 years of eligibility, and if they do not make it into the Hall, they are relegated to the Senior Pool.

Each voter is asked to select 25 names from the preliminary list, with the top 25 vote getters named as Semi-Finalists.

A week later, the voters are asked to pick 15 names from the 25 Semi-Finalists, and a week after, they will pick five from the remaining 15. We will continue this process weekly until we catch up to the current year.

27 people participated in the 1946 Preliminary Vote which yielded the following result:

This is for the “Modern Era”

*Bold indicates they advanced to the Semi-Finals:

This is for the “Senior Era”

*Bold indicates they advanced to the Semi-Finals:

Next Saturday, we will be posting the results of the Semi-Finalists.

Thank you to all who contributed, and if you want to be a part of this project, please let us know!