CINCINNATI — The Bengals insist they know better. They are adamant that they don’t need major changes to the way they do their football business.
It’s the company line from ownership, down through the front office and onto the coaching staff. But Joe Burrow hinted Wednesday that he’s only buying in for so long.
Asked by Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic if he could imagine a world where he’s not the Bengals coach in 2026, Burrow thought and then answered, “I can’t see that. No.”
But provided the natural follow-up of whether he’s ever thought of not being the Bengals quarterback and playing somewhere else in his career, Burrow was not as definitive.
“You think about a lot of things,” said the sixth-year NFL quarterback, who has studied the career arcs of Peyton Manning and Tom Brady closely. Manning moved on from the Colts and finished his career with the Broncos, winning a Super Bowl with both franchises. Brady was assumed for years and years to finish his career with the Patriots, where he won six Super Bowls, went to three others and made eight straight appearances in the AFC Championship. That is, until he and Bill Belichick went their separate ways after the 2019 season. He wound up in Tampa Bay, where he won his seventh ring in Super Bowl LV.
“A lot of crazy things happen every year,” Burrow said. “Micah Parsons got traded right before the season. That’s something I hadn’t seen in a long time in the NFL. So crazy things can happen.”
Indeed, the NFL landscape is littered with carnage of teams who fail to navigate the twists and turns of the modern-day league and keep up to speed with the methods for continually improving your franchise.
When your front office and ownership doesn’t explain themselves and leaves the head coach to do all of the talking and apologizing for bad draft picks or failed free agency signings (or none in key positions), the Bengals come off as a franchise that believes they can win on the backs of three or four star players.
Has Burrow voiced his opinion to front office and ownership?
“We’re in constant communication on a lot of conversations. That’s a pretty vague question,” Burrow told me. “There’s always different conversations being had about different perspectives about what’s happening, what’s going on that are being shared.”
Burrow, as the most important voice in the organization without the last name Brown or Blackburn, has always insisted he’s not a decision-maker when it comes to personnel. But he does have a voice. He can suggest things he’d like to see, like the extensions of Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Trey Hendrickson last season. Chase and Higgins have turned out to be smart moves. Hendrickson got hurt and his $29 million was a wash.
The problem is not Burrow suggesting the Bengals keep their best players in the building. It’s the front office that can’t seem to properly roster build around it’s great players. That’s what’s been grossly exposed this season, especially on defense. It’s not the drafting of Barrett Carter and Demetrius Knight Jr., or even first-rounder Shemar Stewart. It’s naively going into the season thinking that you could rely on a core of rookies on a defense that had to be re-built, without adding sufficient veterans.
The Bengals brought in one front-line free agent in TJ Slaton and role players in Oren Burks and Joe Giles-Harris at linebacker. That’s it. There’s plenty that could and should change about the Bengals roster and the way the front office works heading into a third straight offseason without a playoff appearance. Any one thing in particular Burrow would like to see change?
“Tough to say right now,” Burrow said. “I appreciate being informed of decisions that are being made. That’s not to say that I need to be involved in the decision-making processes but I enjoy kept up to date on thought processes and decision-making trees. Obviously, we haven’t been where we want to be the last three years. A big part of that is injuries on my end. I played one full season (during the three years). I played four games this year. It’s hard to make an impact on a season when you’ve played four games. I need to figure out a way to be available for everybody here. As far as what I can control, that’s something that is top-of-mind for me.”
Burrow made it clear Wednesday, he’s no Andrew Luck 2.0, who retired in the prime of his career, burned out and burdened by a sport he no longer enjoyed.
“I like playing football, for the same reasons that I wanted to push to come back from injury. Same reasons I want play this week. It feels like everybody’s trying to do everything in their power to make me not play football and I feel like I’m fighting it. I’m fighting everybody else. I just want to play ball. That’s all I want to do,” Burrow said. “I mean you think about (not playing), but you think about a lot of different things in your life just like everybody does. You think about all different possibilities that could happen. I’m going to be playing for a long time. I expect to play for a long time and I expect to play well and consistently great for a long time.”
Burrow, even at this stage, wants badly to play. He is dealing with a knee issue that cropped up in the Ravens game and was seen with a slight limp Monday in the locker room. Still, he was listed as a full participant Wednesday at practice and plans to start Sunday in Miami.
As for head coach Zac Taylor, he was selling something else altogether Wednesday. On Tuesday, Dehner reported that Taylor is signed for two more years, through 2027 after receiving a second five-year extension after the 12-4 season of 2022. The Athletic also reported that Duke Tobin is regarded as family and is going nowhere. Emboldened with ownership support, the fans will just have to accept that there will be no change in who’s calling the shots at the top and if it doesn’t work out, oh well, that’s too bad for the fan base that pours its emotional equity and thousands in season tickets into their dwindling Super Bowl hopes.
There’s plenty of accountability but zero consequences for failure coming out of Paycor.
“Here’s what I try to do every day – make the best decisions to win the game. A lot of that is trying to strengthen your team and roster, giving opportunities to guys like that what we’ve done this season. Two-fold, if you say I’m going to do things because this could … no I’m going to do what’s best for our team and our program to win immediately, to win long term, so that’s every decision. If you’re worried about losing your job and that’s how you’re going to make your decisions you’re not going to be very effective at what you do,” Taylor said.
“It’s been a disappointing year and I’m not going to run from that, and the blame falls at my feet, nobody else’s truthfully. I’ve got my hands all over this thing. I haven’t done a good enough job. I understand that. I also have seen how this staff can respond and how these players can respond, because we’ve been through this before. This is very similar to 2020. It was very bleak and discouraging and all we did was turn around and respond with back-to-back divisional championships, which is rare to do in this division, and play for conference championships, play for Super Bowls. I feel extreme confidence that we know how to do that and get back to that, and that’s exactly what we set our mind to do.”
So, in other words, Taylor is hoping his front office can hit it big again with names like Trey Hendrickson, Chido Awuzie, Mike Hilton, Vonn Bell and DJ Reader and Larry Ogunjobi. Those six free agents were signed over 2020 and ’21. That sounds more like playing the lottery than it does reading what the Bengals offseason has looked like the last three years.
“I have a great relationship with them. I believe in them,” Taylor said. “I don’t ever want to speak for someone when they’re speaking about me. That’s unfair. I shouldn’t do that. But I love the relationship I have with everyone in this building. The unique thing about this is we get to meet so often, and that’s a really good thing because there’s no three weeks of no communication face to face -‑ I’m wondering what they think about a game, what they think about ‑- none of that. We get a chance to form a relationship and go through all this stuff and it’s the right way to do it. And so again, I’m excited to finish out this season the right way and for the future as well.
“Yeah, I think for a lot of the reasons, everything was praised in ’21 and ’22 and then you have down years, and it’s okay you need to change everything. Well, where were those comments when we were doing it very similarly, and we were having a great year. So for us, everybody is always open to evolving. I can’t speak for everybody, but I know just from dealing with everybody in this building, everyone wants to win and do everything it takes to win. And so I know that better than anybody, because I interact with everybody. And so I feel extreme confidence that we are all on the same page. All we want to do is win and bring championships here to Cincinnati, and we’ll do whatever it takes. To put it specific words on how that’s going to look, that’s all for us behind the scenes to work through it and make sure we do all that. But I have absolute confidence that we have the right people and the right setups to make this happen, because we’ve proven it, and we’ll prove it again.”
THIS AND THAT:
With Charlie Jones nursing an ankle injury from the Ravens game last Sunday, the Bengals had Ja’Marr Chase back fielding punts in practice Wednesday, with Mitch Tinsley and newly acquired Ke’Shawn Williams.
“Any time you get the opportunity to strap up the pads and put the cleats on and go in front of the world and prove your worth through all the hard work that you’ve put in, prove that you’re improving week to week, that’s what we’re all trying to do,” Burrow said. “We’re trying to get better and better ourselves. We have three opportunities to do that. When I wanted to come back, obviously you want to make the playoffs and you want to make a run and all that, but that was kind of tertiary. In my mind, I just wanted to get back our there and play and put on a show and try to play well and produce.
The first-round defensive end wasn’t quite ready to return from the IR last Sunday against Baltimore. But he was a full participant on Wednesday and the hope is he might be able to get back on the field for the final three games, starting Sunday in Miami.
“I saw a guy that was fighting through injury. And so I think he’s just had a tough go of it this season,” Taylor said. “And it’s because just things that have happened to him on the field… I want to make sure we see him practice. And he’s got the confidence in that, and we’ve got the confidence in that before we put him back out there. So, again, that’s completely up in the air, really, as we watch him go through the week. But I like he sits in the front row of the team meetings. He’s all eyes on me when I’m up there presenting. He does a great job taking it all in. Jerry (Montgomery’s) office is right next to mine. I can see the attitude he’s got every single day. And so I’m fired up when we do get him out there, whether it’s this week or not, for the future that he’s got here because he’s a guy that I’m really high on.”
The Bengals had four players miss Wednesday practice, all with ankle injuries. Kris Jenkins Jr. is likely the most serious of the bunch, with Charlie Jones, Joseph Ossai and Noah Fant all missing with ankle issues as well.
