Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow has two years left on his rookie deal and the team has made it abundantly clear that they would like to get his extension done early.
Buy Bengals TicketsBut Burrow’s well aware all of the fundraising and modernizing moves the team has made in anticipation of an extension — among other things — won’t matter if he doesn’t keep playing at a high level.
“It doesn’t mean anything if I go in and stink it up this year,” Burrow said, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Charlie Goldsmith, “I’m focused on this year.”
The Bengals sold the naming rights to Paul Brown Stadium, making it Paycor Stadium while picking up lots of needed revenue in the process. The team has also struck other local partnerships and sold naming rights to specific gates in order to do the same.
Some of the work the team has done is to merely help finance the roughly $500 million in planned stadium upgrades soon. But with Aaron Rodgers now making more than $50 million annually on his new extension over three years (never mind the Deshaun Watson $230 million deal), the more cash in hand for guaranteed contracts, the better.
Burrow has very little left to prove on this front, either, after coming back early from the knee issue to lead the team to the Super Bowl. He’s now battling coming back from a ruptured appendix in the latest preseason hurdle, but there’s no reason to think both he and Ja’Marr Chase won’t be dominating the team’s cap space after extensions soon enough.
