What if Joe Burrow doesn’t say he wants to play in Cincinnati? This is what Dolphins must do
The NFL will put Joe Burrow in front of the microphones and reporters Tuesday morning and the most consequential topic for the 2020 draft’s presumptive first overall selection will be whether he’ll accept playing for the Cincinnati Bengals.
Or not.
And it will likely be pretty clear after Burrow’s interview session where things stand because, well, Burrow is adept at messaging. He proved this Monday when news of his measurements made their way into the media.
Burrow is officially 6-foot-3 1/2 and 221 pounds. And his hand size measures 9”.
The hand size is smallish for an NFL quarterback. That’s important to some scouts because it suggests a future struggle either throwing the football in poor weather or holding on to the ball when contacted by defenders.
Tua Tagovailoa, by comparison, is smaller than Burrow in that he measured 6-0 and 217 pounds. But his hand size was nearly 10”.
And you know what Burrow thought of this fuss?
Yeah, Joe Burrow has a sense of humor and an edge about him.
He knows how to get to the heart of a matter when he wants to. Which is the reason Tuesday is so important because everyone will likely know whether Burrow is fully invested in playing for the Bengals, based on how he addresses the issue.
Burrow, an Ohio native, can say he’ll play for the Bengals if they pick him No. 1 overall and that will end of any controversy about him preferring to play elsewhere.
Or Burrow can fall short of making that statement in which case all sorts of speculation about Burrow trying to pull an Eli Manning or John Elway -- both of whom forced teams that wanted to draft them to trade them instead -- at the very top of this draft.
The issue will either fizzle or sizzle depending on what Burrow says Tuesday.
The truth of the matter is the issue was basically fanned by Burrow and his camp to begin with.
In mid December, while Burrow was headed toward the Heisman Trophy and national title at Louisiana State University, his father Jim Burrow said the family welcomed the idea of Joe playing for the Bengals.
“We’ve talked about it,” Jim Burrow said on TSN 690. “I can be in my seat in 3.5 hours from Athens (Ohio), that’s certainly a positive. He’s excited to be in that conversation and if the Bengals do draft him, he’s going to be happy.”
But then things changed.
Burrow hired former NFL quarterback Jordan Palmer as his throwing coach to prepare him for his pre-draft workouts. And brother Carson Palmer, who played for the Bengals, came out publicly saying he never thought the Bengals were trying to win the Super Bowl during his time in Cincinnati.
Then other players echoed those sentiments.
And Burrow seemed to suddenly be wary of playing for a franchise that hasn’t won a playoff game since 1991.
“Look, this is a long process, right?” Burrow told the Fort Worth Start-Telegram “They have their process that they have to go through, and so I am blessed to be in the position I’m in. If they select me, they select me, I’m going to do everything in my power to be the best football player I can be.
Mac Engel of the Star-Telegram told Burrow “if they select me, they select me” could be interpreted multiple ways and gave the quarterback a chance to clarify. But Burrow stayed on message.
“It’s a long process in the next couple of months,” Burrow said. “We have the combine. We have pro days. There is a long time until the draft. There is a lot of information in a lot of different places. A lot of people saying a lot of things. I’m just focused on training right now.”
And you know something Burrow hasn’t said?
Or tweeted?
Or leaked through his various representatives?
This: “I will definitely play for the Bengals if they draft me.”
This is smoke that will turn into a four-alarm fire if Burrow fails to say those words Tuesday or otherwise suggests he’d like to play for some other team instead of Cincy.
And what does this mean to the Miami Dolphins?
(It’s always about the Miami Dolphins, people, even if it takes me 700 words to get there.)
It means if Burrow’s 9 a.m. media session ends and he hasn’t somehow agreed to playing for the Bengals, the Dolphins must immediately begin to plot a way to get Burrow in this draft.
Simple as that.
If Burrow wants to leave the door ajar to going someplace not named Cincinnati, the Dolphins must position themselves as that place.
That means Dolphins general manager Chris Grier would have to call Cincinnati general manager Mike Brown to feel out his desire to trade the No. 1 overall selection or Burrow after selecting him No. 1.
That means Dolphins owner Stephen Ross calls Cincinnati owner Mike Brown -- yeah, the same guy does both jobs -- to try to convince him to trade the No. 1 overall selection or Burrow after selecting him No. 1.
The Dolphins, the team with the most draft resources in this and next year’s NFL drafts, must be first in line to trade for the top quarterback prospect.
And hasn’t that been the point all along?
It was, after all, Grier, who said the Dolphins had all the resources necessary to pick anybody in the draft they wanted, right? That didn’t seem correct because it takes another team wanting to trade to make that work.
But maybe it could work in this case if Burrow puts the Bengals on blast.
And make no mistake, it would be a tough situation the Bengals.
The Bengals don’t want to draft someone who doesn’t want to play for them. They don’t want to invest a first overall selection on a player who threatens to not sign and sit out a year until returning to the draft next year.
And the Dolphins stepping forward would only add to the number of things Brown’s Bengals would have to ponder because it gives them a face-saving exit to the problem.
It makes sense this would be the Dolphins’ logical move because, remember, Burrow is this draft’s top quarterback prospect. And the Dolphins urgently want a top quarterback.
So Tuesday is a big day for the Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals. And if Burrow doesn’t commit to playing for Cincinnati, Tuesday could be a big day for the Miami Dolphins.
This story was originally published February 24, 2020 at 10:20 PM.
