Joe Burrow Should Lean Into Being a Bengal Part 2

BY ADAM GREENE

Joe Burrow might not want to be a Cincinnati Bengal, but he should rethink that position.

Mike Brown is a terrible general manager and the owner of the team would have fired him years ago if not for the fact that he also happens to be Mike Brown. Cincinnati, as a organization, is lazy and Brown clearly doesn’t know what he’s doing.

But things can change.

Consider the aforementioned Arizona Cardinals. Before the late 2000s they were a garbage franchise, owned by the Bidwill family that cared more about filling their stadium with other team’s fans than fielding a winning team.

Then, completely by accident, in 2009 the Cardinals had a good team. They made it to the Super Bowl. They had good players and a Hall of Fame quarterback in Kurt Warner thanks to him being stupidly cut by another team in their own division. And once the Bidwill family had a real taste of what NFL success looked like, with a real QB tossing the ball, they wanted to keep it.

That’s what brought Carson Palmer to the desert and his best years as a pro. It’s what gave him his only playoff victory in his career, a 26-20 win over the Green Bay packers with one of the most epic endings in NFL history (that stamped Larry Fitzgerald’s ticket to Canton in the process).

The Bengals can do it to. They’ve got the right coach in Zac Taylor, I believe. They need to make the right free agent moves and I’ve outlined some of them already. They need to sign an elite left tackle (I say Anthony Castonzo is the best option for them), slide last year’s first round pick Jonah Williams (who never played a down due to injury) to the right side and add a top free agent left guard while they’re at it (I already picked Brandon Scherff out for them).

They don’t need to worry about bringing A.J. Green back, but tossing a load of money at Amari Cooper would not be a bad idea. And while he’s not a potential Pro Bowler, the addition of Daniel Fells at tight end makes plenty of sense for a team losing Tyler Eifert.

A loaded offensive line, a potential pro bowl all-purpose running back in Joe Mixon and the addition of Burrow could change this franchise’s fortunes for good. We can only hope Mike Brown has accidentally stumbled upon this article while Googling Gout remedies.

The New England Patriots were all-time losers for years before the last couple of decades until they found their quarterback. The San Francisco 49ers, pre Joe Montana, were too. Burrow can be that guy. He should want to be.

Because there’s no team at the top of this draft, or any draft, that is a “great organization committed to winning” until they actually become one. What they always need to spur that change is the right coach and quarterback. It happened with the Patriots. It happened with the 49ers and, as the best possible example for the Bengals, it happened with the Cardinals.

Teams don’t become committed to winning championships until a quarterback shows them the way. Burrow did it with LSU. He can do it in Cincinnati. Take the challenge, Joe. Show them the way.

Get the latest NFL football odds and information–follow BetOnline.ag on Twitter!

BetOnline.ag on Instagram–Follow for the latest odds, stats and information!