By all accounts, Cincinnati Bengals owner Mike Brown has to be happy with quarterback Joe Burrow. The LSU product led the Bengals to the Super Bowl last season and he’s currently leading them on another playoff run. Brown commented about the signal-caller’s future in Cincy but his comments did offer up a message, even if they were positive.
In an interview on the team’s radio broadcast on Sunday, Brown echoed comments made by Burrow about how bright his future is but also offered a bit of a warning about how needing to pay more for the quarterback means less money for people to play around him.
“He’s going to have a long career,” Brown told the team’s radio broadcast. “We certainly want it to be here. I think his window will extend over his whole career. But there is the fact that when you don’t have to pay the quarterback some extraordinary amount, that leaves room to pay other players more and, therefore, you can keep more players that are good players.”
The No. 1 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, Burrow has done pretty much everything asked of him so far as an NFL quarterback, so it’s hard to imagine he won’t need to be compensated according. However, it sure sounds like Brown is sending a bit of a warning shot across the bow, saying that if you want me to pay you big money, that might mean less money for wide receivers and offensive linemen. Perhaps not the best message to send to a guy who could very well be the best QB in franchise history.
Burrow has one year left on his rookie contract, though it includes a fifth-year option that the Bengals can exercise. However, because Burrow has now been in the league for three seasons, he is also eligible for a contract extension. If he’s able to get the Bengals back to the Super Bowl this season, it’s hard to imagine that he won’t require one.
[ESPN]
