Cincy Jungle
The Bengals front office has a lot of decisions to make this offseason that will impact not only 2025 but also future years.
When it comes to national reporters and personalities Cincinnati Bengals fans like and dislike, there’s one national writer Bengals fans can trust.
Even if he were to write something negative or critical about the Bengals, fans can trust his reporting and stories. That’s Sports Illustrated’s and The MMQB’s Albert Breer, who’s also seen on Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football throughout the regular season.
Recently, in his weekly mailbag, Breer paid homage to Peter King, a longtime NFL writer at Sports Illustrated and NBC Sports, by writing 10 things he thinks he thinks going into the offseason. The second of those 10 things is, as he writes: “I think the Cincinnati Bengals have as critical an offseason as anyone in football looming.”
On the Bengals, Breer writes: “Joe Burrow was very vocal the past couple of weeks, telling anyone who’ll listen what he wants the Bengals to do with teammates such as Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, Trey Hendrickson and Mike Gesicki.
“In short, he wants them rewarded, and to be part of the equation going forward. To accomplish that, a lot of guaranteed money will be going out the door.
“The underlying thing here? Burrow’s priority is chasing championships. As long as the Bengals show they’ll provide the resources to put him in that position consistently, everything will be fine. So they should do that, rather than find out what happens if they don’t.”
Breer perfectly summarizes that will be the overriding storyline going into this season for the Bengals; keeping the players that Joe Burrow has stated are needs for this team in the pursuit of a championship.
Look at the Philadelphia Eagles, who just won Super Bowl LIX. The Eagles have figured out a way to pay all of their stars, draft and develop, sign free agents and make trades. They’ve laid the blueprint for organizations, like the Bengals, on how to pay their stars and execs in the draft, free agency and trades.
Joe Burrow emphatically stated who and what he thinks the Bengals team needs are going into free agency and the 2025 Season. Now, it’s on the Bengals front office to listen to what Burrow is saying and continue to evolve the way they handle spending money. They’ve gotten a lot better and aggressive in free agency, now it’s time to embrace paying their own.
