Colin Cowherd sneaks in Joe Burrow jab while breaking down "only way" to win in NFL

The Cincinnati Bengals suffered a massive blow on Sunday after Joe Burrow sustained a toe injury. The Bengals quarterback is set to undergo surgery on Friday, ruling him out for at least three months.

Burrow's injury significantly impacts the Bengals' playoff hopes this season, although they have other stars capable of pulling through for the team. However, Colin Cowherd gave a blunt assessment of Bengals' chances, taking a sly Burrow jab.

He said on "The Herd NFL" podcast (1:00 onwards):

"What the NFL has become is David Stern's NBA. David Stern, because he took over a dying NBA, leaned into stars and market size. You could have two and three and four superstars on one team, and if the big markets could afford them, so be it.

Adam Silver took over the NBA from David Stern where it was top-heavy, and Adam Silver said, 'I want to make it more even.' Well, under Adam Silver, seven years, seven champs and we can argue which is better.

Cowherd explained how the NFL has transformed into David Stern's NBA with the team's "only way" to win being dependent on star quarterbacks.

"But what the NFL has become is David Stern's NBA because the only way to win in this league consistently is to have a great quarterback because of safety rules post CTE story. NFL protects quarterbacks as much as they can and they've changed the legislation, the rules of the sport to favor the quarterbacks.

"The haves in the NFL right now, you have to have at least a B+ quarterback. The haves are Buffalo, Baltimore, Kansas City, Chargers, Cincy, when Joe Burrow is healthy, Texans and Denver."

The Bengals' first challenge without Joe Burrow will be on Sunday when they travel to the Minnesota Vikings to preserve their unbeaten start to the season.

Joe Burrow's teammate vows to take leadership role in Bengals quarterback's absence

Joe Burrow is expected to return in mid-December and could potentially miss the remainder of the regular season. In his absence, Bengals wideout Ja’Marr Chase hopes to be a vocal leader for the team.

"Like Zac told me at the beginning of the year, and now this is the moment where I have to speak up a little bit and just let the guys know,” Chase said. “We've got to make sure we're on top of it today, Thursdays, Fridays any day.

"I'm not going to say that was Joe's job, but that was more of his role. I want to say, just being a leader, more of a vocal leader really.”

Jake Browning replaced Burrow after his injury on Sunday and is taking over the starting role in his absence.