Joe Burrow spoke publicly about his contract situation for the first time on Tuesday as he and the Bengals are working toward an extension for the Pro Bowl quarterback.
Burrow is entering the final year of his rookie contract, but it seems like a forgone conclusion that he will sign a long-term extension with the Bengals before Cincinnati kicks off the regular season against the Browns on Sept. 10.
“I’m involved,” Burrow said regarding contract talks with the team. “It’s in the works. It’s not really something I like to play out in the media. That’s just the way I think they want to do business, [how] I want to do business. We prefer to keep that between us.”
Burrow was asked if it matters to him how the contract is constructed. One option is the Patrick Mahomes route and signing a longer-term deal that could include roughly $500 million over the length of the deal. The other option would be to mimic the deals that Jalen Hurts and Lamar Jackson recently signed this offseason. Both players signed five-year extensions that will pay them an average of just over $50 million per season. Both deals also included a significant amount of guaranteed money ($185 million for Jackson and $179 million for Hurts in the event of an injury).
“I think there’s a lot of different ways it can work out,” Burrow said. “We’ll see how it plays out.”
Burrow’s projected market value is a six-year deal that would pay him an average of nearly $54 million per season, according to Spotrac. That deal would make Burrow the league’s highest-paid quarterback from an annual salary standpoint.
Because of Hurts and Jackson’s extensions, Burrow’s market value has risen about $7 million this offseason as far as his annual salary is concerned. While Burrow will be paid among the league’s highest-paid players, there is a thought that Burrow may leave some money on the table in order to help the Bengals retain other key players, most notably receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins.
After Burrow, Bengals owner Mike Brown has already said that the team is prioritizing the contracts of the team’s top receivers. In order to save cap space, the Bengals allowed safeties Vonn Bell and Jessie Bates III to sign elsewhere in free agency. Second-year safety Daxton Hill and free agent signee Nick Scott are slated to replace both players in the starting lineup.
In the draft, Cincinnati prepared for the…
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