Picture this: You’re playing Madden, you’ve finally drafted that generational Joe Burrow, built an explosive offense, and reached the Super Bowl. Then, inexplicably, your controller glitches. You fumble the settings menu. You can’t access your best defensive playbook. That gnawing sense of a championship window slamming shut due to avoidable tech failure? Welcome to Cincinnati, where Burrow’s digital avatar might be screaming at the console.
“I think Joe Burrow’s going to shoulder a little extra pressure because he went out on a limb,” Dan Patrick noted recently, cutting to the heart of the Bengals’ summer saga. “He went to management. He said, ’I got to have these guys.’ Now, he didn’t get Trey Hendrickson, at least not yet, but you know, the Bengals’ reputation kind of precedes them. You got to have some defense here because you’re not going to win that many shootouts in the NFL.” Translation: Burrow staked his rep on keeping his core together, and right now, the front office looks like it’s playing a different game entirely.
Coming off a season where he shattered franchise records—4,918 passing yards, 43 TDs, a 108.5 passer rating, and an NFL-record seven straight games with 250+ yards & 3+ TDs—Burrow isn’t just elite; he’s rewriting team history. He joined Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers as the only QBs ever with 4,500+ yards, 40+ TDs, and fewer than 10 INTs in a season. That’s royalty. Yet, instead of basking in his second Comeback Player of the Year award or his December AFC Offensive Player of the Month nod, he’s watching two critical defensive pieces gather dust in contract purgatory.
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“No, no, it’s tough to do that. Now, he’s special enough to where I think you’d probably be with me… at the end of the year last year, we were all like, ’Oh my gosh, if the Bengals get in the playoffs, they might go to the Super Bowl with how he played and did all that,’” Chris Simms said, highlighting Burrow’s transcendent talent. “I love that he keeps the pressure on the organization. He has to. He’s got to continue it. The Bengals just can’t get out of their own way. I mean, they messed up last offseason and here they are trying to mess it all up once again.”
So the message is clear, the reins are in Joe Burrow’s hands, and if he doesn’t pull on them, the ownership might just let his talent waste away.
Window wasting away: Bengals risk fumbling Burrow’s prime over pride and pennies
Simms didn’t mince words about the stakes: “And it’s just incredible—they’re in a window with the best player they’ve had in their franchise history. Joe Burrow is by far the biggest thing that’s ever happened to the Cincinnati Bengals… Burrow, as you know, is a superstar. He’s an international superstar. He’s one of the best quarterbacks in football. It’s not even close.” Letting this window crack over contract squabbles feels like football malpractice.
The stalemates are glaring:
Trey Hendrickson: The NFL’s back-to-back sack king (17.5 sacks in both ’23 and ’24), feels disrespected by his current deal. He wants market value or a trade. The front office? They’re holding firm, demanding a king’s ransom (a 1st-round pick+) while letting their defensive anchor skip minicamp.
Shemar Stewart: Their raw-but-freakish 1st-round pick (a 6’5″, 267-lb edge with a perfect 10.00 Relative Athletic Score and a 4.59s 40-yard dash) remains unsigned. Why? A nasty contract clause dispute where the Bengals want to void all future guarantees for minor infractions. Stewart’s riposte was sharp: “I’m 100% right… I’m not asking for nothing y’all have never done before. But in y’all’s case, y’all just want to win arguments more than winning games.” Ouch.
“Them doing what they’re doing with Trey Hendrickson, what they’re doing with their first-round pick Shamar Stewart… they’re hurting both players right now,” Simms stressed. “…they’re hurting both players right now by screwing up the Shamar Stewart contract situation and not having him out there and the Trey Hendrickson one. I just don’t understand it.”
It’s a baffling gamble. Burrow, the chess master who keeps a board in his locker, knows strategy. He knows championship teams aren’t built on offense alone. He saw the defense surrender 27.8 PPG last year. He knows Hendrickson’s 35 sacks over two seasons are irreplaceable. He knows Stewart’s rare athleticism needs mentorship now to flourish. Yet, the front office led by Mike Brown—an owner whose legacy includes the NFL’s slowest journey to 100 wins—seems stuck in neutral, risking the prime of a quarterback who’s already cemented himself among the league’s absolute best (4th-highest career passer rating ever at 101.2).
Burrow staked his credibility. He got his weapons paid. Now, the ’Who Dey’ faithful hold their breath, hoping their golden-armed leader can somehow will the front office to see the urgency before the pocket collapses not around him, but around their shared Super Bowl dreams. The noose isn’t literal, but the pressure? It’s real, it’s mounting, and Burrow’s legacy might just depend on how tight he can make Brown feel it. Tick tock, Cincinnati. Your franchise QB is watching.
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