joe burrow
joe burrow
Heading into the 2026 season, Joe Burrow has the weight of the world on his shoulders. Can he carry the Bengals back to the playoffs after missing in each of the last three seasons? In 2023, his season was shortened due to a freak wrist injury. That injury was so severe that “experts” on Twitter said that he would never be the same. In 2024, he led the NFL in passing yards and touchdowns, obliterating his own single-season records for the club. Last year, another freak injury knocked him out for the middle of the season, and the Bengals finished 6-11.
Over the first two weeks of the season, Burrow has been light-years better than the slow starts from the previous seasons. While he’s still knocking off rust and heating up, is he destined for history this year?
Each week (assuming health), we are going to take a look at Burrow’s progress in each of the Bengals’ passing records as he leads the team through a (hopefully) successful season. Now, after two weeks, he has a steep hill to climb, but it’s nowhere out of the realm of possibilities.
Joe Burrow Bengals Passing Record Watch: Week 4
Sep 27, 2026; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow (9) throws against Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Payton Wilson (41) during the third quarter at Acrisure Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Barry Reeger-Imagn Images
Yards
Career Record: 32,838
Burrow’s Current Total: 21,271
Burrow’s Pace: 11,286 yards away, 269.4 yards per game: 41.9 games (Week 12 of 2028)
Ken Anderson holds the Bengals’ career passing yards mark with 32,838. Andy Dalton (31,594) came close, but that 2019 season was one to forget for everyone. To this point in his career, Burrow has 20,810 yards, making him 12,029 yards away from outright owning the record.
While everyone has been focused on the sack-fumble to end the game, Burrow was actually really good against the Steelers. He finished the game with 282 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions. The target is still in the middle of the 2028 season.
Single-Season Record: 4,918
Burrow’s 2026 Total: 743
Burrow’s Pace: 4,210
Now, we can move on to the attainable records. In his last fully healthy season, Burrow topped his own single-season record with 4,918 yards. Impressively, in Burrow’s three healthy seasons, he owns the top three single-season passing records in franchise history with the 2021, 2022, and 2024 campaigns.
Burrow’s insane season was partially thanks to his and Ja’Marr Chase‘s health (Tee Higgins missed five games as well), and partially thanks to the fact that he had to be perfect to win. The Bengals’ defense was awful, thus putting it all on the offense to just outscore opponents. Cincinnati had the seventh-worst scoring defense (25.5 points per game) and the sixth-best scoring offense (27.8 points per game).
Heading into the year, he had to average nearly 290 yards per game, so at least after three games, he’s on pace to fall short. For what it’s worth, his first two games in that 2024 season were 164 yards and 258 yards, for an early pace of 3,587, so there’s a lot of football to be played. He did put up his first 300-yard game in Week 3 that year, which he hasn’t done to this point this year, so we will have to see.
Touchdowns
Career Record: 204
Burrow’s Current Total: 163
Burrow’s Pace: 42 away, 2.03 touchdowns per game: 20.7 games (Week 8 of 2027)
Now for the fun part. Burrow has set his sights on breaking the career touchdown record for the Bengals. Heading into 2026, he was 48 away from owning it outright, breaking Andy Dalton’s record. Burrow’s predecessor broke the record in December of 2019 in his 129th game. Even if he has to wait until next year, it’s looking like Burrow will be able to own the record in significantly less time.
Burrow has been held without a touchdown 10 times in his career (Bengals are 2-8 in such games, naturally). However, if he wants to break the record by Week 18, he’ll need to average 2.8 touchdowns per game. What makes this goal attainable is the fact that he has 30 games with at least three touchdowns. The target is still in the middle of 2028 after a three-touchdown performance against the Steelers, but breaking it this year is not out of the question.
Single-Season Record: 43
Burrow’s 2026 Total: 6
Burrow’s Pace: 34
Another record currently held by Burrow. If he’s going to break the career touchdown record this year, he’s going to blow by his mark, also set in 2024. In that season, Burrow was held to one or fewer touchdowns just four times, resulting in a 2-2 mark for the Bengals. One of those was that awful Week 1 loss to the 4-13 Patriots.
Now that Burrow is beginning to warm up, the pace looks to creep toward that goal of 43 in a single season. With the run game seemingly starting to take a step, defenses will have to key in on Chase Brown, thus letting Burrow do what he does best.
Check back weekly, as we will update these with each performance. Hopefully, by the end of the year, the Bengals will be gearing up for a playoff run, and Burrow will have his name atop more leaderboards.
Up Next: The Jacksonville Jaguars (235.7 passing yards allowed per game; 175.7 yards per game allowed to wide receivers)
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Main Image: Thomas Shea-Imagn Images