Colin Cowherd compares Joe Burrow to $104,000,000 NBA star amid Bengals QB's MVP-esque season

The record could be misleading, but Joe Burrow has been one of the NFL's best quarterbacks this season. The Cincinnati Bengals superstar is putting numbers out of this world, and despite the fact that the Bengals currently are 8-8, everyone recognizes how well the quarterback has been playing.

It's safe to say that, had it not been for Burrow, Cincinnati would have been eliminated a long time ago, with the rest of the roster not helping him much. However, a great comparison came from famous host Colin Cowherd, who hosts The Herd on Fox Sports, and it was not NFL-related.

Cowherd believes that this roster only feels competitive because of a single player. What other team resembles him? LeBron James' Cleveland Cavaliers during his first stint with the NBA franchise.

This is a 3-14 without Joe Burrow. It reminds me of LeBron in Cleveland the first time, where he's there for seven years, and finally he goes to the Olympics, and LeBron is like, 'Oh, this is what it's like to play with really good players.'

Remember LeBron in Cleveland? And by the way, Burrow got to a Super Bowl and lost. LeBron got to a finals and got run out of the building four straight by San Antonio. And then LeBron finally realized, ownership, front office, 'I'm wasting my time here,' and LeBron felt bad. He eventually came back. What Joe Burrow is doing right now... is insane.

Nothing around Burrow is good. Nothing. run game defense... This is what a franchise quarterback is. Not elevating what he already has, hiding what he doesn't, which is everything.

When LeBron James left the Cleveland Cavaliers to join the Miami Heat's "Big 3"

James is widely recognized as one of the greatest basketball players of all time. At 40 years of age, he remains a superstar, recently signing a two-year, $104 million contract with the Los Angeles Lakers.

He has four NBA championship rings, but during his first stint with the Cavaliers, which lasted seven seasons, he was often alone in a championship pursuit, with a weak roster around his talents. He moved to the Miami Heat and won back-to-back titles before eventually returning to Cleveland, where he won the city's first major sports championship in 52 years.

What's the playoff path for Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 18?

Although they looked doomed for a long time during the regular season, a sequence of four wins kept the team alive until Week 18. Their chances are slim, but what looked impossible four weeks ago is a reality now.

The Bengals will qualify for the playoffs if they beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Miami Dolphins lose to the New York Jets and the Denver Broncos lose to the Kansas City Chiefs. Any result different from this combination will eliminate Cincinnati.

If the Broncos defeat the Chiefs, who are likely to rest their starters, then they'll automatically qualify with a 10-7 record. If they lose, but the Dolphins and the Bengals win, then Miami will advance due to having the tiebreaker advantage over Cincinnati.