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Joe Burrow’s recent comments have several NFL general managers starting to smell blood in the water.
Whether the Bengals trade him or if the quarterback even wants to leave is an entirely different story.
But several front office executives weren’t afraid to speculate what could happen when they spoke to CBS Sports this week.
One NFC front office executive estimated that there were “probably only a handful [of teams] that wouldn’t at least make an attempt,” while one AFC team executive told the outlet that it would take a “Ricky Williams-type trade” to make a deal for Burrow, 29, happen.
The Williams reference harkens back to the deal the Saints put together in 1999, which included all of their draft picks that year and two future first-round picks to move up in the draft to select the running back.
“Probably depends on if a team has a young QB or players to offer but imagine they won’t even answer the phone if you don’t have at least two first-round picks plus more,” another NFC front office exec told CBS Sports. “Maybe even three if you’re not doing it with any players involved.”
Burrow has led many NFL observers to try to read between the lines of several cryptic answers he’s given about his future in Cincinnati.
The Bengals quarterback told reporters earlier this month that he couldn’t see himself playing anywhere but Cincinnati in 2026, but mysteriously responded to a question about thinking of playing somewhere else at some point when he said, “You think about a lot of things.”
He had also been asked if he had thought about retiring, which also led to a peculiar answer.
“I mean, you think about it, but you think about a lot of different things in your life just like everybody does,” Burrow said.
Burrow was a little more joyous this week and even presented his teammates with a unique gift for the holidays.
He gave his offensive linemen authentic dinosaur, bear and mammoth fossils, according to ESPN.
“It says a lot about who he is — his personality, his heart, all of those things, man,” tackle Orlando Brown Jr. said. “He’s just a special person.”
“I think it speaks to his intelligence and interests and his desire to do something unique,” Bengals center Ted Karras added.