“Smart Move”: Bengals Fans React as Joe Burrow Desires to Take the Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes Route to Retain Star Teammates

Joe Burrow is one of the highest-paid quarterbacks in the league, earning $55 million on an average annual basis. It’s a substantial figure, one befitting a Heisman-winning, No. 1 overall pick, franchise QB. However, this also makes it challenging to retain several key players when so much money is tied up in one individual.

The Cincinnati Bengals are facing a similar dilemma ahead of the 2025 offseason, but Burrow has stepped up, offering to help alleviate the situation, much like QBs such as Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady have done in the past.

The Bengals have a laundry list of players to retain. It all starts with Tee Higgins. He’s a player who’s struggled to stay healthy the past few seasons, but that could be because of a lack of motivation without a long-term contract.

Higgins has registered at least five TD catches in each of his first five seasons. He adds a wrinkle to the Bengals’ offense that makes them difficult to stop. It’s projected he will land a deal worth north of $30 million per season. Trey Hendrickson is another player on that list.

Hendrickson led the league in sacks last season with 18. He’s emerged as one of the most dominant d-ends in the game. He’s still under contract for 2025 but will undoubtedly want to talk with ownership about a possible extension. Hendrickson should be making twice what he’s on the books for in ’25 at $15.8 million.

That’s why Burrow said he’s willing to take a pay cut so that the team can retain players like Higgins and Hendrickson on long-term deals. Burrow recognizes that signing these two guys and then some is going to take a massive amount of cap space. And he already takes up most of it.

That’s why he said he’s willing to take a pay cut for it to occur. After all, the greats like Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes have been able to get it done without being the highest-paid quarterbacks in the league.

“We have the cap space to get it done. I want to make it happen. Everybody involved Trey, Tee, Ja’Marr, Mike G, we all want to stay together. When you have guys that are motivated like that, I think you can get those things done,” Burrow said.

Another big dog on track for an extension is Ja’Marr Chase. Contract extension talks stalled with him last offseason, and there were fears he might sit out Le’Veon Bell-style. But Chase decided to play while earning only $1 million and proceeded to put up a triple-crown receiving season. Now he’s going to be worth even more.

It’s projected that he could sign a five-year deal for $145 million. Which would make him the highest-paid wide receiver in the NFL. Chase, however, is still technically under contract for 2025, as the Bengals exercised their fifth. He would be on the books for $21 million. But nobody expects him to play for the team under that deal. If they don’t figure that situation out this offseason, we could have another murky outlook on Chase going into the year.

We can’t forget about Mike Gesicki either, as Burrow also mentioned him in the group of guys he hopes the Bengals brass can resign. Gesicki had a nice bounce-back season in ’24, catching 65 passes for 665 yards and two scores. There were times when the Bengals would line him up out wide like a wide receiver and throw him jump-balls. He’s a highly skilled pass-catcher for his size and would fill a need at tight end for the team.

As expected, fans reacted to the news of Burrow taking a pay cut with praise, saying that it’s a smart move and joking that the Bengals don’t deserve a good person and quarterback like him.

However, that’s three $30 million contracts that the Bengals are looking to hand out this summer. It’s a ton of money. There’s going to need to be a lot of money restructuring to make it happen. Add in a Gesicki contract that could be worth close to $7 million, and that’s almost $100 million that the Bengals will have to spend to retain all of these guys. In a dream world, they can make it happen. But it’s likely that at least one, if not two guys take their talents elsewhere.

The Bengals are the cheapest team in the NFL according to valuation. The Burrow contract was the biggest deal they ever got done. It would be surprising to see them hand out three separate $30 million contracts in one offseason. Burrow wants them to get it done tough, and he’s a talent that the Bengals should undoubtedly listen to. He got them to the Super Bowl once. Supply him with weapons and let him do it again.