Joe Burrow isn’t just stuck. He’s trapped.
During press conferences these past few weeks, the Cincinnati Bengals quarterback has sounded like a 29-year-old man who can’t see his way out of a bad situation. He was asked, directly, whether he could see any world where he’s a QB1 for another NFL franchise in 2026.
“I can’t see that, no,” he said.
But would Burrow want to play somewhere else someday?
“You think about a lot of things,” Burrow said.
Folks, this is bad. His teammates know it’s bad.
“If I’m being honest, I’ve never been in a situation with him where I’ve had to uplift him. But going forward, I might need to because he does it for me,” star receiver Ja’Marr Chase said after Sunday’s game, a shutout loss to Baltimore that dropped the Bengals to 4-10. “You never know what he might be going through.”
In March, things seemed to be looking up when Cincinnati signed both Chase and fellow star receiver Tee Higgins. That was a gesture unlike anything the Bengals, notoriously the cheapest franchise in the NFL, had ever made to its quarterback.
Joe Burrow and star receivers Ja’Marr Chase (left) and Tee Higgins (right) started the season with big aspirations, but the Bengals have double-digit losses for the first time since 2020. (Photo by Kara Durrette/Getty Images)
But just as quickly as the Bengals opened the faucet, they turned it off — refusing to reward All-Pro edge Trey Hendrickson with a long-term deal. In August, he held out in hopes of getting a lucrative extension. He eventually signed a one-year contract, making him a free agent after this season.
Regarding Burrow, all the doom and gloom started last week on his birthday.
“I think I’ve been through more than most,” Burrow told reporters amid another injury-ravaged season. “And it’s certainly not easy on the brain or the body, so just trying to have fun doing it again.”
If you’re like me, you may have been thinking: Wait a second, could Joe Burrow retire?! That’s the most tactical way to engineer an exit from the Bengals, after all. Say goodbye to football — until a team shows up and saves him from Cincinnati. But he clarified: That was not what he was saying.
“My comments had nothing to do with Cincinnati,” Burrow said days later. “My comments had everything to do with me and my mindset and football.”
He also clarified: “I expect to play for a long time.”
You can choose to believe him. You can choose not to believe. But remember his comment — “You think about a lot of things” — and it’s fair to wonder how much time Burrow has spent considering where he could have signed once he made it to free agency.
And to be clear, he might not have made it to free agency until after the 2026 season. Drafted in 2020, Burrow was on a four-year rookie contract with a fifth-year option. Then the Bengals could franchise tag him twice. Of course, there was no way he was going to turn down the financial security of his 2023 extension: five years and $275 million. And there is no way he wouldn’t have demanded a trade if the Bengals didn’t give him that extension.
But finally, we’re talking about demanding a trade. Which Burrow has not done. Not ever.
Would he?
Like basically every starting QB, there’s a no-trade clause in his contract, per reports. But that means basically nothing. Any QB who wants to get traded will waive that clause. It’s of no import. Most players do not have leverage when it comes to springing themselves loose in a trade. But most players are not as important as Burrow. If he threatened to retire or hold out until the Bengals traded him, it’s easy to imagine him winning that standoff.
In a similar-but-different situation, the Patriots once tried to trade Rob Gronkowski. He didn’t want to go to the Detroit Lions. So Gronk threatened to kill the trade by retiring. It worked. The Patriots backed out of the deal with the Lions. And that was the end of it. Similarly, Gronk refused to come out of retirement in 2010 until the Patriots traded his contract rights to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The former star tight end has admitted there was no way he was playing for New England after Tom Brady left.
Burrow has all that power — and more.
You can see why he would not want to leave. Not yet. His receiving corps is the best in the NFL. He is tight with Chase and Higgins. And Higgins, in particular, took a team-friendly deal to stick around with Burrow. It would be a tough business decision to leave those guys.
But you can also see why it would be tempting to leave. The Bengals’ offensive line has never been good during Burrow’s tenure. The defenses have never been special. And while the contracts for Burrow’s top receivers is a nice gesture, it clearly hasn’t been enough to make the Bengals a contender for another Super Bowl run. They need to invest in the entire roster. And if history is our guide, it’s hard to project the Bengals suddenly investing in the team. That’s just not what owner Mike Brown does.
But Brown might just have to decide between his wallet — and his quarterback. That’s why there has never been a more important offseason for Cincinnati than this one.
The Bengals seem to have an unhappy quarterback. Maybe because they have a bad roster.
But there are no longer any excuses to fix it. The Bengals have the salary cap space, with $70.5 million in spending money this offseason. And that’s just face value. You can bet Burrow and/or his receivers would tweak their contracts to free up more space. Cincinnati is also projected to have a top-10 pick.
Burrow can plainly see how difficult and how dramatic it would be to demand a trade. But if the Bengals botch this offseason — and don’t build a contender around their star quarterback — then the (once difficult and dramatic) decision becomes straightforward.
At that point, he should demand a trade. He would have to accept that a move would likely mean his new team wouldn’t have first-round picks for a few years. But he still might have a better chance at winning with almost any other organization than the Bengals.
Before joining FOX Sports as an NFL reporter and columnist, Henry McKenna spent seven years covering the Patriots for USA TODAY Sports Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Follow him on Twitter at @henrycmckenna.
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