Who Should I Start? Joe Burrow or Brock Purdy

Friday, September 11, 11:03 AM

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow is poised to begin his MVP campaign against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday in Week 1. The Bengals superstar had an injury-plagued 2025 season, missing nine games with a severe turf toe injury. Burrow was productive upon his return, scoring 19+ fantasy points in five of the final six games of the season. Now Burrow enters the 2026 season fully healthy and armed with a trio of elite offensive weapons in Ja'Marr Chase, Chase Brown, and Tee Higgins. The 29-year-old will get an opportunity to run up the score against the Buccaneers in a game with the highest game total of the week set at 50.5 points. Both the Bengals and Buccaneers had down years by their standards in 2025, but both teams were top-six in scoring in 2024. With Burrow fully healthy and opposing quarterback Baker Mayfield fresh off signing his new contract extension, both teams should be ready for a high-scoring affair. Burrow is currently ranked as the overall QB1 in our RotoBaller Week 1 rankings, so fantasy managers should be very excited about starting him this week.