NFC Exec: Bengals' Joe Burrow Behind Only Patrick Mahomes as Players to Build Around

It isn't often the Cincinnati Bengals are the envy of the football world.

ESPN's Jeremy Fowler polled a number of people around the NFL, the majority of whom said they'd rather have the Bengals star Joe Burrow over the Philadelphia Eagles' Jalen Hurts. Left implied is that both would fall behind Kansas City Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes in this exercise.

"Outside of Mahomes, Burrow is that next guy that you would build a team around," an executive from an NFC team said. "Everything he does says winner."

That's hard to argue against considering the 26-year-old was a national champion in college at LSU and has guided Cincinnati to back-to-back AFC title game appearances.

As reductive as it is to say a player innately knows how to win, that statement seemingly applies to Burrow.

Fowler wrote that the gap between Burrow and Hurts in the responses he received was "closer than I expected." The latter is fresh off leading the Eagles to an NFC title and signing a five-year, $255 million extension.

"The run-game element is such a threat," one NFL personnel director said to Fowler. "Hurts is improving as a passer every year, and when you combine that with how savvy of a ball handler and rusher he is, it's really problematic for a defense."

While Mahomes remains the gold standard at quarterback, an NFL general manager couldn't go wrong by making either Burrow or Hurts the cornerstone of the franchise.