Ed Orgeron reveals why Joe Burrow is more valuable than Ja'Marr Chase

Ed Orgeron joined the Dan Patrick Show prior to Super Bowl 56 to speak about his former LSU stars, Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase. During the interview, Patrick wondered who was more important to the Tigers when Orgeron was recruiting between Burrow and Chase.

“Well, both are different,” answered Orgeron. “I think that Ja’Marr was committed to Florida. He was in the state of Louisiana, but I needed a quarterback. Joe set the tempo for everybody. So, I got to say it’s Joe. But that’s a hard question.”

Burrow gets a lot of the credit for turning LSU around, even from Orgeron. Without the star quarterback captaining the offense, the Tigers could’ve been a collection of talent that never reached their full potential. However, with Burrow at the helm, they elevated to one of the greatest teams to ever grace the field.

Reminiscing, Orgeron revealed when he noticed Burrow had the it-factor he was looking for.

“So funny,” recollected Orgeron. “Joe comes down and he tells me, ‘Coach, I don’t want to talk to you. I don’t want to hear you’re recruiting game. I know you’re a great recruiter — don’t need to hear it. Just want to talk football and eat crawfish.’ I was like, okay. I was kind of frustrated to be honest with you. I couldn’t get my claws on him. Every time I was trying to get them, you know, no no I don’t want to talk. I never had a recruit that didn’t want to talk to the head coach.

“So, we had a football meeting. We had set up some plays that he had ran at Ohio State. Some plays that we were going to run. His Dad was in the meeting. Steve Esminger, who did a great job as offensive coordinator .. Jerry Sullivan. 74 years old. Been in the NFL for years. I’m in there. And all of a sudden, we start watching the film. I start asking Joe questions, and I figured out immediately — Joe was the smartest person in that room. Including me. Including the coaches. And I was happy about that.

“That showed me his football intelligence. What I saw in that meeting, that’s what you see today.”

As you can see, it didn’t take long for Ed Orgeron to recognize he had something special in Joe Burrow. After finding so much success at LSU the quarterback is doing the same at the next level. Orgeron will be rooting as hard as anyone in Cincinnati for the Bengals on Sunday, hoping to see his two former stars capture Super Bowl 56.