by virtue of winning a national championship you could make the case that burrow had the better college career but stafford had a more prolific college career as a three year starter and a higher profile recruit. so let's call that a wash. they were both the first player taken in their respective draft classes.

professionally stafford has had great nfl career, he's thrown for nearly 42,000 yards that ranks him ahead of joe montana, johnny unitas, jim kelley and troy aikman all hall of famer's but is stafford a hof'er? no, why because he hasn't won. the lion's have been in just 3 playoff games in his career and lost them all. is that his fault? maybe but the lions haven't won a championship since 1957, they're the only team in the NFC to have never been in a super bowl and that's not his fault.

the bengal's haven't won a playoff game since 1991. can they build a team around burrow's talent? yeah theoretically, but will they? history says they won't.

on paper the nfl is an all things being equal league in terms of players. every team has the same salary cap, the players are unionized, they don't become free agents until their 5th year in the league and most players don't last 5 years, and beyond that you can franchise tag players keeping them from free agency.

where the nfl is not equal is in ownership, management and coaching and the fact is that it's very difficult to attract good people to a bad situation no matter how much you're paying them.