I hear you loud and clear, Texas A&M, Florida, Tennessee and Mizzou fans.

You believe your quarterback got snubbed. Kellen Mond, Feleipe Franks, Jarrett Guarantano and Kelly Bryant all have a case to be made for why they should have made preseason third-team All-SEC ahead of Joe Burrow. Let’s hear the “OVER-RA-TED” chants from now until the 2019 season kicks off.

OK, did we get that out of our system? Good. Now it’s my turn.

Let me preface this by saying my vote for third-team All-SEC was Mond because I believe he took a major step up in Year 2, and really Year 1 with Jimbo Fisher. His skill set gives Fisher a wealth of possibilities and I believe he’s more than capable of being the driving force behind beating a top 5 team this year.

But in my opinion, Burrow isn’t very far behind Mond. That’s why I don’t have a problem with Burrow getting the third-team nod.

I’m already on record saying that I believe LSU will have a top 20 offense this year. The well-documented addition of passing coordinator Joe Brady is definitely part of that, no doubt. He built a run-pass option offense that’s going to allow Burrow’s skills to flourish even more than they did last year.

And yes, Burrow doubter, his skill set did flourish last year with Steve Ensminger. You want to knock him for his lack of touchdown throws (16), and the fact that he didn’t have 1 in October? That’s a fair criticism.

But it should also be mentioned that LSU’s quarterback depth was gutted when Lowell Narcisse and Justin McMillan transferred upon Burrow’s arrival and second-stringer Myles Brennan dealt with injuries throughout 2018. He was essentially an emergency quarterback in the middle of the season.

The goal was to keep Burrow healthy last year, and to try not to expose him. That wasn’t easy with the issues LSU had at the tackle positions (go re-watch that Florida game and “issues” will be the understatement of the year). That also wasn’t easy to do with a quarterback who as Ed Orgeron says “would run through a wall if we let him.”

Burrow basically ran through a wall for LSU in those final 4 games. He averaged 292 passing yards with a 10-0 TD-INT ratio and he ran for 156 yards and 3 scores. Think those numbers were just boosted by the A&M game? Burrow was plenty efficient. He averaged 9.6 yards per attempt with 67% accuracy. And in the one game Burrow lost in that stretch — he shouldn’t have because of some horrendous officiating down the stretch against A&M — I’d argue he was at his absolute best.

The stat I keep coming back to is that Burrow was the first LSU quarterback since JaMarcus Russell to have 3,000 yards from scrimmage in a season (Zach Mettenberger had 3,082 passing yards in 2013 but he had -133 rushing).

Is it fair to say this is the best LSU has felt about its returning quarterback since Russell was a preseason second-teamer in 2006? I wouldn’t argue against it. There’s a reason that LSU is a lock to be a preseason top 10 team, and for once, the face of the offense isn’t a running back. It’s not Odell Beckham Jr. or Jarvis Landry, either.

Are wins an overrated stat for a quarterback? Absolutely. If we’re talking about a quarterback as an NFL prospect and the first thing in the scouting report is “he’s a winner,” that’s probably because he’s not very good.

But I think those who actually watched Burrow are willing to look beyond the lack of gaudy numbers because of what he does in those key moments.

We saw that when he threaded the needle for a 71-yard touchdown pass to Derrick Dillon in the fourth quarter at Auburn. We saw that when he put LSU’s offense on his back and ran the ball 29 times in that 7-overtime game against A&M. And of course we saw that again when Burrow bounced back by delivering a career performance after getting demolished on that post-interception hit against UCF in the Fiesta Bowl.

It’s interesting because all the talk at this time last year was about how LSU was going to struggle with that gauntlet schedule. Would LSU have been able to navigate those potential land mines had Orgeron not persuaded Burrow to come to Baton Rouge? I don’t believe so.

It’s almost like this third-team nod for Burrow is the media’s way of saying “you already accomplished something we didn’t think was possible.” I certainly didn’t think a 10-win season was possible. Who did?

Oh, that’s right. Burrow did.

Remember when he said in the postgame interview following the Miami win that he was baffled to hear people saying LSU was only going to win 6 games last year? I do.

This year, I won’t be baffled when Burrow is the driving force behind LSU’s continued offensive improvement. He’s got 4 of his top 5 pass-catchers back, including fellow preseason third-team All-SEC pick Justin Jefferson. That’s why LSU ranks No. 12 nationally in terms of percentage of offensive production.

Add in Brady with the fact that Burrow now has an entire offseason with the offense — unlike last year when he enrolled over the summer — and it makes sense why more people are buying him to lead this offense.

To be fair, Burrow isn’t perfect. There’s not one specific thing that he does better than anyone in the SEC. He doesn’t have the deep-ball touch like Tua Tagovailoa. He doesn’t have the cannon that Franks does. He’s not as mobile as Mond. He hasn’t played in a Playoff game like Jake Fromm or Kelly Bryant, either.

And sure, if you want to use the Alabama goose egg against Burrow and say he’s not an elite SEC signal-caller because of that game, that’s your deal.

But there are very few SEC quarterbacks who I’d rather have leading my team than Burrow. My fellow media members clearly agree with that. Well, at least enough of them do.

If that’s still the case at season’s end, LSU is in for some more fun with Burrow in 2019.