Joe Burrow Says He’s Still Refining His Throwing Motion Ahead of 2026 Season
Joe Burrow already owns the highest career completion percentage in NFL history. He’s still not satisfied with how the ball comes out of his hand.
The Cincinnati Bengals quarterback told Kay Adams during an August 11 appearance on the Up & Adams show that his throwing motion is the specific thing he’s obsessing over in training camp this summer.
“Just trying to perfect the throwing motion at this point,” Burrow said. “I’m always thinking about ways to be more efficient, spin the ball, throw the ball, put it where I want.”
Up & Adams posted video of the exchange on X: “Joe Burrow, the NFL’s ALL-TIME completion percentage leader is working on… HIS THROWING MOTION?!”
Joe Burrow, the NFL's ALL-TIME completion percentage leader is working on… HIS THROWING MOTION?! 🤣@Bengals | @JoeyB | @heykayadams pic.twitter.com/H3sh9layru
— Up & Adams (@UpAndAdamsShow) August 12, 2026
It’s a strange thing to hear from a guy who completes passes at a 68.5 percent career clip, the best mark any quarterback has ever posted. But that’s the point. Burrow has talked before about reworking his mechanics from the ground up rather than treating them as fixed. During Netflix’s “Quarterback” series, he told a former high school coach he’d changed his motion “in every possible way” since his prep days. This isn’t a new hobby. It’s a running project he keeps coming back to.
A healthy Burrow chasing his 2024 form
The tinkering comes as Burrow tries to put a frustrating 2025 fully behind him. He suffered a turf toe injury in Week 2 against Jacksonville that required surgery and cost him nine games. When he returned on Thanksgiving night in Baltimore, he needed time to find his rhythm again, but by December he looked like himself. He threw four touchdown passes in a Week 14 win at Buffalo, then followed it with a 309-yard, four-touchdown, zero-interception performance against Miami that produced a 146.5 passer rating, the second-best mark of his career.
Cincinnati’s season ended with a 20-18 loss to Cleveland in Week 18, a game defined more by the defense’s struggles than anything Burrow did wrong. He threw touchdown passes to Chase Brown and Ja’Marr Chase, including the go-ahead score to Chase with 1:29 left, but the Browns answered with a game-winning field goal as time expired. The Bengals finished 6-11 and missed the playoffs for a third straight year.
Even in a season cut short, Burrow’s efficiency barely wavered. He completed 173 of 259 passes for 1,809 yards, 17 touchdowns and five interceptions across eight starts, good for a 100.7 passer rating.
| Season | Games | Comp % | Pass Yds | TD | INT | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 17 | 70.6% | 4,918 | 43 | 9 | N/A |
| 2025 | 8 | 66.8% | 1,809 | 17 | 5 | 100.7 |
That 2024 season is the standard Burrow is chasing again. He led the NFL that year with 4,918 passing yards and 43 touchdown passes, arguably the best statistical stretch of his career. A cleaner, more efficient release is, in his own words, part of how he thinks he gets back there.
Why the mechanics tweak matters for Cincinnati
Small changes in a quarterback’s release can shave fractions of a second off throws to tightly contested windows, which matters against the press coverage and disguised blitzes Burrow will see in the AFC North. Cincinnati overhauled its defense this offseason, most notably by trading for Dexter Lawrence, and the front office is clearly betting that better roster balance plus a locked-in Burrow gets them back into the playoff picture. A quarterback still hunting for extra efficiency at his level is a small detail, but it fits a bigger pattern: Burrow treating a Pro Bowl résumé as a floor, not a ceiling.
Burrow is slated to make his first game appearance since January when the Bengals open the preseason, giving an early look at whether the mechanical work is translating onto the field.
