CINCINNATI — Joe Borough sat in front of the media Tuesday for the first time since his second straight Super Bowl berth bid fell a short drive away in Kansas City.
The subject of the offseason will continue to be the richest pending contract in NFL history – a document that defines the franchise to shape the future of everyone tangentially associated with it.
Like most moments on the court, he knew what was going to happen. As with most moments on the field, he had an effective and direct attacking plan.
“I’m involved,” Burrow said at first. “This is in the works.”
A quarterback who earned a clean Q rating to match an equally clean QB rating knew how he wanted to tackle one of the most complex off-the-field projects of his life. The same way the Bengal does: quietly.
“It’s not something I like to do in the media,” he said. “That’s something, just the way I think they want to do it, I want to do business. We’d rather keep that between us.”
The Bengals and Burrow work their own quiet way behind the scenes to keep this unprecedented success going for as long as possible. Director of Players’ Team Duke Tobin noted at a scouting meeting that the contract discussion portion of the deal with Burrow was a final reassurance as to why he would be the number one pick of their dreams.
“Joe sees the big picture,” Tobin said. “That’s what makes it so great.”
The complex image – with T Higgins and Jamar Chase in the background – comes into focus.
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“I’m very clear about what I want in the contract and what I think is best for myself and the team,” Boro said. “So we are on the way to achieving that.”
I always felt that the contract was inevitable. With Jalen Hurts and Lamar Jackson in the bank, Justin Herbert and Burrow remain among the group of huge stretches expected to reset the booming midfield market. he is coming.
Basically, Burrow said what any Bengals fan should have heard: Don’t worry, I got it.
“Yeah, it’s definitely whenever you have players on the team that need to be pushed, that’s always on your mind,” Burrow said. “You want that to be a focal point so we’re working on that.”
He cares about winning. He cares about keeping as many guns around as possible. He appreciates those who are along the way.
“You have to have good players,” Boro said. “It doesn’t matter how good your midfielder is. If you don’t have good players around him you won’t have a very good team.”
An oft-repeated political axiom applies here: Don’t tell me what you value, show me your budget. Inevitably, the decade will show how much this decade’s thinking turns into calculus.
With Burrow though, there is an ingrained belief that he never broke the public’s trust.
The theme that circulated on Tuesday was that this negotiation would not be a controversial money grab. This will not continue and distract him as did Jackson’s plight across North Asia. As in any business decision, the tip can tip a dime (or, in this case, 2.5 billion of it), but the path to executing a plan that works for both sides and winning values along the way does more than create flexibility for future spending.
It sends a message that reverberates through the locker room – precisely about 10 lockers below numbers 5 and 1.
“It means he wants to win,” said Chase. “He knows what he has to do to win and he wants to win. He’s a winning guy. He’s not a quarterback who always plays with money and all that other stuff. He just wants to win, and that’s the important thing about Joe.”
Like all aspects of Bengals football, Burrow exemplifies excellence. in the assembly. in the conference room. In the community. Weight lifting. And yes, even in his contract structure.
“It means a lot to have a captain like him looking for guys like us,” said Higgins. “We’re obviously talking about staying together for the long haul. Hopefully we can do that and get something negotiated where they can keep us all.”
Whether Higgins, Chase, and Burrow fit into the larger puzzle remains to be determined. For now, knowing Burrow has the rest of the team in mind is enough to explain the generally harmonious atmosphere despite the team swimming in tough business decisions.
Whatever concessions or structures Burrow ends up making in his lucrative contract won’t end up mattering so much when it comes to the future success of the franchise as winning and relationships here because they matter most to Burrow.
This is not to say that other players coming from Cincinnati need to take less or organize in a way that helps ownership. never. Last year’s Jessie Bates is a perfect example of this. His work with the Bengals got hairy and personal. He didn’t show up to an offseason program or sign his franchise label until halfway through camp. But the team didn’t allow Bates to check in emotionally or mentally. Burrow took an off-season trip with him to a UFC fight in Las Vegas, along with veteran cornerback Chidobe Awuzue. They kept him close even though work drove him away. Bates ended up enjoying a solid season, setting a career high in interceptions and earning his deserved contract in Atlanta this past March.
The priority of winning and relationships in the dressing room outweighed business trivialities. It doesn’t have to be in a way that’s beneficial to the Bengals. Borough’s message emphasizes, as Tobin pointed out, an understanding of the big picture.
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Win the games and everyone gets paid. Win the first championship in Bengals history, the franchise of immortality.
Burrow made everything easier in Cincinnati. Fan drawing. sell goods. winning games. Instill faith.
In this case, the burrow effect strikes again. A contract like this would shape the organization’s championship window over the next half-decade, however, and heads remain as impressive as Burrow’s voice in the third and fourth.
All is quiet, Boro shares. He has a plan.
(Top photo: Kevin Sabitos/Getty Images)
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