Now that Joe Burrow himself has nuked speculation he wouldn’t want to play for the Cincinnati Bengals, one can see where the speculation might center next — that the team would trade the pick.
That’s doubtful, in the words of Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin.
“I would say it’s doubtful. You never say never, but I would say it’s doubtful,” Tobin said, according to Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com….There are a lot of great players available to us there. You kind of know exactly what you’re going to get when you start the planning process.”
While a trade would end up in the “biggest of all time” category because the team doing the trading would get to pick between Joe Burrow and Tua Tagovailoa, the Bengals don’t figure to entertain the idea much.
As Cincinnati understands considering it has fielded just two franchise passers since 2003, teams don’t just stumble into an opportunity like this.
Keep in mind this is a team that still thinks it isn’t going into a full-blown rebuild. The valuable assets gained via a trade to address multiple spots on the roster would be nice, but wouldn’t come close to matching the impact of an elite prospect under center.
Unless the Bengals get a can’t-miss offer, expect them to stand still at one.
