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Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow is likely going to be one of the next players to reset the quarterback market with a massive deal, alongside the Los Angeles Chargers’ Justin Herbert.
When that extension happens is another question entirely, however.
As Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reported Tuesday: “Burrow’s going to be highly, highly paid—perhaps even the highest-paid quarterback in football—we’ll see how this plays out. But… it does not sound like anything is imminent. It does sound like the wait will continue.”
Ian Rapoport @RapSheet
From Inside Minicamps LIVE on NFL+: The wait is on for QB contracts, with Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert in talks for deals. pic.twitter.com/B7u33jBOZp
The question is what sort of market-shifting deal players like Burrow and Herbert will seek.
Will Burrow look to exceed the contract length (10 years) and overall money ($450 million) that Mahomes received? Will he be after the shocking amount of guaranteed money ($230 million) that Deshaun Watson secured in his fully-guaranteed deal? Or will he look to exceed the average annual value ($52 million) that Lamar Jackson negotiated in his recent contract?
Either way, even Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin acknowledged during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show in late May that Burrow was going to be handsomely paid:
Pat McAfee @PatMcAfeeShow
“Joe Burrow will be paid well and he’s earned it..
He’s great to work with and we know we’ll get a deal worked out” ~ Duke Tobin #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/nPoQHckHh5
“It’s a pie,” he said of the team’s salary cap situation. “Just how big of a piece of the pie [Burrow receives], you know, the only thing I can predict with the contract is it’s gonna be a sizable amount of money, and he’s not going to be asking any of you for loans anytime soon.”
No surprises there. Burrow, 26, was the 2021 AP Comeback Player of the Year award winner, a 2022 Pro Bowler and has led the Bengals to one Super Bowl and two trips to the AFC Championship Game in his three-year career.
He threw for 4,475 yards, 35 touchdowns and 12 interceptions in 2022, completing 68.3 percent of his passes while leading the team to a 12-4 record in his 16 starts. It was the second straight year he exceeded 4,000 yards and 30 touchdowns while leading the Bengals into the postseason.
He has more than lived up to the hype that made him the top overall pick in the 2020 NFL draft and has transformed a Bengals franchise that hadn’t won a playoff game since 1990 before his arrival into a perennial AFC contender.
So the generational money is coming for Burrow. All that’s uncertain is when his extension will be signed, and what the exact terms will look like.
