Jake Browning Believes He’s Proven He’s A Starter

Jake Browning Believes He’s Proven He’s An NFL Starter

When Cincinnati Bengals starting quarterback Joe Burrow went down with a season-ending injury, all hope appeared lost for this team. I was convinced that the full tank was on to try and get as high a draft pick as they could.

However, when the starting job was passed down to signal caller Jake Browning, he did a fairly good job keeping the team competitive and in the hunt for a Wild Card spot. Browning believes this run this year did enough to show people he’s earned a starting spot.

Full quote via PFT via nbcsports.com:

“I’ve established that I’m capable of being a starter in the NFL,” Browning said. “I’m one of the Top 32 quarterbacks in the world and just happen to be on a roster with a guy who’s proven he’s a Top 5 quarterback in the world.”

Here are Browning’s stats this season:

• 70.4% completion percentage
• 1,936 yards
• 12 touchdowns
• seven interceptions

Jake Browning is an exclusive-rights free agent this off-season, meaning that the Bengals could keep him on a league-minimum salary for 2024 or trade him away to another team. While the QB market could be wild this off-season, I think it would be best for Browning to sit behind Burrow for one more year and then hit free agency in 2025. However, with how he played this year, I wouldn’t be shocked if some NFL teams came calling.

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Has Jake Browning done enough to show he can be a starter in the NFL? Maybe. I mean, do you view him to be better than someone like Desmond Ridder? How about Zach Wilson? Mac Jones? If you answered yes to any of those three, then he has done enough. I don’t think I would be able to sleep at night after trading for Browning to be my starter, but some general manager might be crazy enough to do it.

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