The Cincinnati Bengals need to walk a fine line in free agency between potentially spending big cash to protect Joe Burrow and also prepping the checkbooks for the star quarterback’s inevitable market-resetting extension.
Burrow, eligible for an extension after the 2022 season, is a big part of the team’s approach to free agency in more ways than one.
While penning his annual free-agency preview column, Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com made repeated mention of this factor, writing that “Burrow’s massive structure-changing extension looms on the horizon after this upcoming season.” and that “the Burrow deal is real and it’s coming fast.”
He added this:
“The Bengals aren’t going to alter their philosophy that frowns upon shoving big money into future years in order to pump up a mega deal, which plays into bracing for Burrow.”
History says the Bengals will try to get the Burrow extension done as soon as possible, getting some of the upfront costs of a jaw-dropping deal out of the way as quickly as possible. They did something similar with Carson Palmer and down the line had plenty of cash to extend core pieces of a playoff-caliber team.
What does this mean for this trip to free agency? It means the front office probably isn’t going to change the way the structure contracts. They’ll look to heavily frontload contracts and offer favorable guaranteed cash numbers. That’ll naturally filter them out of the running of some top guys, but they’ll still have a chance to buy several major, costly upgrades along the offensive line or otherwise.
All of this works with the presumption, of course, that Burrow and his reps will jump to do an extension as soon as possible. But it’s the hurdle to remember when talking about the Bengals adding big names in free agency this offseason.
