Tobin can relate. Like Burrow he was a college transfer quarterback in the early '90s and he knows how hard that is. Before Burrow took the podium, one of his LSU tight ends, Thaddeus Moss, recalled how he broke the ice.

"I'm rocking with Joe Burrow. No one has ever put up the number he put up this year and on top of that, doing it in the SEC West. I think if you put the film on, that speaks for itself," Moss said. "Great leader. Great teammate. Anything you need from him, he's very supportive. Vocal leader. Leads by example.

"As soon as he got to LSU, we were in a players-only meeting. He got up and spoke to everybody and told them, 'Look, I don't care if I'm the starting quarterback or if I'm the back-up quarterback. Y'all going to get everything out of me. I'm going to put my best foot forward to help this football team win games.' Ever since he got up in front of that players-only meeting, everybody was OK with Joe Burrow. We're rocking with Joe Burrow."

He won't rock out until April 3 at his pro day at LSU, 20 days before the draft. The Bengals probably won't get him for a private workout until after that. Then he'll also be coming into Paul Brown Stadium for a visit. But Taylor says all these things can be worked out after this week.

"We don't worry too much about it, because we know we'll get a chance. We've watched all that tape," Taylor said. "That's the number one evaluation tool that we want to follow, and then number two you'll get a chance to see everybody work out at some point, whether it's the Pro Day or the workouts you have for them. So we don't worry too much about that stuff. They played an NFL schedule this year at LSU. They played 15 games into mid-January so those guys are probably going through a little different process than everyone else."

And Burrow looks like he's in a little different position than everybody else.

Presumptive No. 1.

But don't tell him that.

"The only thing I've said is that I just didn't want to be presumptuous about the pick," Burrow said. "That's why I've been non-committal because I don't know what's going to happen. They might not pick me. They might fall in love with someone else. You guys kind of took that narrative and ran with it. There has never been anything like that from my end."