Joe Burrow made it a lot harder for the Miami Dolphins to draft him Tuesday morning
Joe Burrow made it a lot harder for the Miami Dolphins to draft him Tuesday morning.
After weeks of speculation that Burrow didn’t want the Bengals to take him with the No. 1 overall pick — which would potentially open the door for the Dolphins to trade up and get him — the Heisman Trophy winner said at the NFL Scouting Combine on Tuesday that he would play for whoever takes him.
“I’m not going to not play,” Burrow said. “I’m a ballplayer. Whoever takes me, I’m going to show up.”
That seems at odds with recent comments that cast doubt on Burrow’s eagerness to go to Cincinnati, which has a terrible organizational reputation — spread by some of the team’s best former players. Most notably, he has said he wants to go to a team that’s committed to winning.
On Tuesday, his tune had changed.
“I think with any quarterback, fit is really important,” he said. “But you don’t have a lot of say in that in the draft. Whoever picks you, picks you and you’ve gotta go play. I’m going to try to make whoever picks me work. I think that my skill set is really diverse, that can fit in a lot of different schemes. So I’m going to try to be the best player I can for whoever drafts me.”
Burrow added: “Of course I want to be the first pick. That’s every kid’s dream.”
So are the Dolphins completely out of the picture? They apparently don’t believe so. Burrow said he’s had some “informal” contact with the organization in recent days and has come away impressed by what he has learned.
“They have a lot of assets and it seems like they have begun to build a team that can be successful,” Burrow said. “I don’t know a lot about it. I’m just coming in Year 1 as a rookie. You guys know more about it than me. They seem to be doing the right things.”
This story was originally published February 25, 2020 at 9:30 AM.
