The real question is this.
Do the Bengals draft a franchise quarterback that doesn’t want to be with the franchise?
No matter what Joe Burrow says he has no leverage. If the Bengals draft him his options are play or don’t play. He has no backup plan.
He isn’t a baseball player and he doesn’t have the power of the Manning family behind him. This latest report from CBS Sports speaks on all the little things he has done to subtly let the Bengals know he doesn’t want to play for them.
“Look, this is a long process, right?” Burrow told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram this week. “[The Bengals] have their process that they have to go through, and so I am blessed to be in the position I’m in. If they select me, they select me, I’m going to do everything in my power to be the best football player I can be.”
I don’t know that Burrow won’t be a Bengal in late April. But I do know I’m less confident in my belief a month ago that he will be.
Then, Burrow opted against competing at the Senior Bowl where he likely would have been coached by the Bengals staff for the entire week in Mobile.
Then, at Radio Row during Super Bowl LIV, Carson Palmer issued an ominous warning as if Burrow were Julius Caesar walking around on March 15.
“That’s why I wanted out: I never felt like the (Bengals’) organization was really trying to win a Super Bowl, and really chasing the Super Bowl,” Palmer said of the franchise that drafted him while on the D.A. Show with Damon Amendolara on CBS Sports Radio.
Burrow is at the combine, so maybe we will get some clarity on this.
There has been a lot of criticizing on Baker Mayfield, but one thing I can say about him is that when he found out he was going to be drafted by Browns he dove headfirst in trying to change that perception of that team.
So, I do think this is a bit of a red flag against Burrow.
Flip the page for video of Burrow speaking about the Bengals.