The Cincinnati Bengals were never going to trade the rights to Joe Burrow that came via the first pick in the 2020 NFL draft.
It was a badly-kept secret before the draft itself and right up until the NFL announced the pick. We later learned the Bengals repeatedly shot down offers from the Miami Dolphins.
And now Bengals personnel aren’t doing much to hide these facts. In a new interview with Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com, director of player personnel Duke Tobin and director of college scouting Mike Potts didn’t hold back when asked about trading No. 1:
GH: What was the best offer you got for the pick?
DT: We don’t talk publicly about offers. We really weren’t interested in trading it anyway.
GH: It seemed like a trade was never an option.
DT: We felt good about sitting there and taking him and that was the most important thing to us, more so than what any team might want.
MP: We weren’t moving off that first pick. I could have told you that a long time ago.
In this case? Boring was good for Bengals fans. Non-local media tried to play up the chances the Bengals would move the pick as the process is wont to do to any team that holds the top pick.
But as we stressed often, Burrow was the plan. Clearly, there’s no point in doing much to hide it now.
