Why Joe Burrow and the Bengals are in ‘win now’ mode
Yahoo Sports Daily hosts Caroline Fenton and Jason Fitz are joined by Solomon Wilcots of Bleav in Bengals to discuss why Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals are in win now mode this season. Watch the full episode of Yahoo Sports Daily on YouTube or YahooSports.TV .
Video Transcript
I think Joe Burrow's been very clear throughout his entire career.
Look, he puts everything that he has into trying to win and trying to make this franchise a consistent winner.
In so much, in the second season, it took him to a Super Bowl despite the fact they were 10 and 7 during the regular season that year.
And then in 2021, 2022, back-to-back AFC title games.
And so this comes on the heels of three consecutive years of not even making the playoffs, and doing everything he can to keep Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins around him.
He's saying, "Look, now is the time to get this done, and we don't have tomorrows.
I don't wanna talk about what's gonna happen years from now."
He knows that the NFL is an acronym which means not for long, right?
A career can go by very quickly, and he's about wanting to get this done now.
And I think the underlying message, if we can't get it done here, then maybe somewhere else it could happen if it doesn't happen here.
So I, I think that is a, a fair way to interpret it.
I think we can also go back to last season when Joe Burrow talked about how he's, he hasn't had as much fun playing football- Mm-hmm that he wasn't as happy- Yeah playing football.
And there was some concern level there that maybe retirement was going to be a choice for Joe Burrow.
A la kind of like an Andrew Luck premature retirement from an elite quarterback.
What is the concern level in Cincinnati that that could be an option for Joe Burrow, is retirement?
Yeah.
I, I think Cincinnati Bengals fans, like, just wanna don't wanna live in that world where a quarterback this good is willing to walk away from his career and walk away from the franchise.
But you have to live in that world.
If you, if you're realistic, I think you've gotta look to Carson Palmer, who did it following the 2010 season.
Going into 20, 2011, he di- he did not wanna come back to this team.
He was a player who, like Joe Burrow, was taken with the first overall pick and decided, "You know what?
If you guys are gonna go ahead and pursue this, you're gonna have to do it without me.
I'd rather play elsewhere."
Carson Palmer came to that final conclusion for a number of different reasons, but at the end of the day, I, I think you are hearing that in Joe Burrow's sort of questioning when he said, "I'm not having fun."
I think some people to- "Oh, it, is this supposed to be fun?
It's your job."
He didn't mean it on that level.
He meant, "Look, I'm getting hurt.
I'm dealing with injuries every single year.
And if we're not winning, if we're not close to getting into the playoffs, if we're not playing in meaningful games in December, then why are we here?"
