We're in the Bengals' equipment room talking to Joe Burrow about time travel because he can.
If you don't know how many NFL quarterbacks can delve into the space-time continuum, now you know why he's one of the most interesting people in the league, never mind Bengals' history.
"It's theoretically possible," says Burrow, pensive as usual as he leans on a table. "It's just an engineering problem for the most part. As you travel closer to the speed of light, time starts to slow down, and as you go close to a black hole, you experience time at a different rate."
Burrow, the once-and-future MVP candidate of the Bengals, seeks to start his fifth NFL season this September Sunday (1 p.m.-Cincinnati's Channel 12) by leaping into his December and January form against the Patriots at Paycor Stadium.
He enjoys reading about the sciences (mainly physics theory) when he gets his hand on a book or two in the offseason. But, as if to underscore the quantum seriousness of how he views his career as one of the game's top quarterbacks while keeping his privacy intact, the kid who papered his Athens, Ohio bedroom with an homage to Star Wars no longer prioritizes science fiction.
These days he is reading about Stephen Hawking instead of Stephen King, which bolsters the belief of at least one faculty member at Athens High School that he was on his way to being an astrophysicist.
"I always liked that stuff. I don't know if I was quite smart enough to do all that, but I was always really intrigued by that realm," says Burrow, who has been plowing through On The Origin of Time.
"I'll read a chapter, and then I'm like, 'What the hell did I just read?' And then I'll go back and read the chapter again. So that one has taken a while, I would say."
It's not unlike his highly intellectual approach to the game. Calculating. Precise. Methodical.
"I grow and learn from every rep that I get. Whether it's a game or practice, whether it's an individual drill or it's team or seven-on-seven," Burrow said. "And the more reps that I get, the better I'm going to be. And that's why I always feel like I'm at my best at the end of the year. So hopefully we'll just move that timeline up a little bit."
The timeline has been at light speed on and off the field since Burrow arrived as the NFL's first pick of the 2020s. From playing Vinton County to appearing in Vogue: Five seasons ago, he was in his Athens basement streaming. This spring he was walking the Paris runways.
Five Septembers ago, he lost his NFL debut on a last-second penalty. He comes into this opener as the NFL's all-time completion percentage leader to go with two AFC North titles, an AFC championship and a Pro Bowl.
New Bengals offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher has had a front-row seat for it all as his quarterbacks coach during the previous four seasons.
"I would say his football IQ and his preparedness to play the quarterback position at this level, coming to us as a rookie, there have probably been very few guys that came as prepared as he came, and even going forward, that will be as prepared as he was," Pitcher says.
He had Burrow for every training camp snap for the first time this year, and Pitcher watched him instantly call on plays they haven't talked about since last year and then seamlessly communicate and execute them.
"That's where I think you start to see the four years of experience," Pitcher says. "And the fun part about that is wherever you and I are in five years, when you come back and ask me the same question, he'll be that much better five years from now than he is today. Because that thing, that part, keeps growing. That's the cool part for him. He's going to find himself able to play this game at such a high level mentally that it's going to separate him from just about everybody else that does it."
Burrow would rather deal with the future than the past. For one thing, he says, theoretically you can't travel back to the past. If he could, he says he'd like to watch the Pyramids being built. Or just go back all the way.
"The origin of time itself would be interesting," Burrow said. "You'd be burnt up immediately because of the temperature of the universe. But if you could be a fly on the wall."
The buzz these days is about Burrow's first full training camp as a pro. The numbers back up his claim he gets better the more reps he gets. His passer rating soars to 108.3 in December and then hits 113.2 in his four January games. After four summers of truncated training camps, his lowest monthly passer rating is September's 89.5.
Imagine he transports December or January to September.
"Exactly," Burrow says. "We'll see. This is uncharted territory for me."
Feeling out each game is the biggest thing he's learned during his last five seasons, Burrow says, pointing to the evolution beginning in two down-the-stretch wins in 2021.
The Bengals won in Las Vegas when he threw for just 148 yards, but he completed 69% of his passes and didn't turn the ball over. In Denver, he threw just 22 times, but completed 68%. Again, no turnovers.
"If you go in and play the Ravens, you're not going to play the same way as you go in and play the Chiefs, as you go in and play the Browns. I always go into the game the same way, and then I have to be able to adapt to whatever the game calls for," Burrow said.
"Early on in (2021) I wanted to go out and make big plays, and then sometimes those aren't hitting, and your defense is playing really well, and then you just have to switch to a different mode, and it's like, 'I want to protect the ball. We're running the ball. Well, we can't turn the ball over. We're going to win this game.' Every game calls for somebody different."
Burrow says he's not going to be different in 2024.
"New and improved," he said.
Go back in time to his first NFL offseason when he was rehabbing his knee. Pitcher recalls how he significantly re-made his mechanics and came out throwing seeds rather than sowing doubts. How he got his legs underneath him, accessed his core, and used his body to find more velocity.
"I just love how he's wired," says Pitcher, and it's been another season of self-improvement.
"I'm more well equipped to go outside the pocket and make those kinds of plays because I've been working really hard on that the last two years," Burrow said.
"I didn't quite get to show some of that until the last couple games that I played last year. But early on, I didn't really get to show that. That was the biggest emphasis of last offseason for me, and that's continued into this offseason. So that's a part of my game that I've decided to showcase."
Burrow has spent the offseason talking about igniting the offense with more explosive plays downfield, and he's all for pulling off more play-action to get them. That would mean getting under center at times and turning his back to the defense, something he admittedly doesn't prefer.
But if the circumstances are right, he welcomes a future that involves play-action.
"Definitely. I think there's a spot for it," Burrow said. "I think I'm at my best when I'm in the shotgun and I can see everything that's going on and distribute the football.
"But it starts with running the football. If we can run the ball really well, then those hard play-actions, turn my back to the defense, are going to be way more effective. If we're not running the ball the way I think that we're going to, then the D-ends aren't going to really respect the run, and then they're just going to get off, and at that point, the play-action is kind of null and void. So it kind of just depends on how the defenses are playing us."
One of the constants of training camp has been Burrow's praise of the Bengals' run game. It has been revamped in the sense that new starting running backs Chase Brown and Zack Moss have styles that fit the shotgun. Plus, they acquired two massive right tackles during the offseason in ten-year vet Trent Brown and first-round pick Amarius Mims.
"We do," says Burrow of the need to run the ball better. "I think we will. I really like how that's looked this fall camp. I'm excited to see what all the work that we put in brings to the table early on this season."
His five years as a Bengal has also shot through time off the field. Pitcher says of their Heisman Trophy winner, "Hey, he was famous when he we got him." But he had yet to be in a Vogue spread or on the cover of Men's Health.
"I bet he loved that," says Jimmy Burrow, his dad, when told his intensely private son had been asked about his fame.
If Joe Burrow is getting better on the field, he also says he's getting better off it as he deals with the 24-7 clicks of 2020s fame.
"It's very interesting. It's not a normal life, but we're adjusting to it," Joe Burrow said, who doesn't go out much in Cincinnati. "Not really around here. I could, but it's a lot every time. So I pick and choose my spots when I do. We're adjusting to it. I'm getting better at living this way, but it's definitely taking some adjusting."
Jimmy Burrow believes Joe is getting more comfortable with the idea. He was recognized in Boston earlier this summer when he saw his grandmother inducted into the National High School Sports Hall of Fame. Dot Burrow was enshrined with former Bengals linebacker Takeo Spikes, former Giants running back Tyrone Wheatley and Baseball Hall-of-Famer Joe Mauer.
It turns out young Joe Burrow had been a fan of Minnesota's Mauer when the Burrows were living in nearby Fargo.
"That was quite a deal. The good thing was Joe was with Joe Mauer in a couple of different settings. That made him a little more comfortable," Jimmy Burrow said. "I know he doesn't go many places without being recognized.
"I think he's adjusted well. He's become a little more comfortable with it, but I don't know that he's ever going to say, 'Hey, this is awesome to be this famous,' Basically, it's part of his job to deal with it in a respectful manner. I don't think it's ever going to be something that he enjoys and looks forward to people recognizing him."
His father says he and his mother miss the days they could go out to dinner.
"Now he says, 'Can you just pick it up?' and that's fine," Jimmy said.
Just like everything else. Burrow is working at it.
"At the beginning, I would say yes all the time," Burrow says. "But I'm getting better at saying 'No,' in a polite and respectful way when I just want to be left alone. But sometimes I have time for everything that comes with it and sometimes I don't, and when I don't, I'm getting better growing as a person setting boundaries and people, for the most part, respect that."
Burrow's growth continues even as his Year Five suddenly arrives Sunday. It turns out, there is no time like the present.
"I'm going to go into the first game like I always do and lean on the guys and go out and make plays if I have to," says Burrow of the near future. "That's kind of how I'm going to approach every game. Play within the offense. See how the game's going, and then, if something else above and beyond is needed, I'm going to go try and do it."
