Joe Burrow on Future of  Bengals Stars: Time to Pay Tee Higgins, Trey Hendrickson and Ja'Marr Chase - video Dailymotion

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Joe Burrow on Future of  Bengals Stars: Time to Pay Tee Higgins, Trey Hendrickson and Ja'Marr Chase

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00:00Because we know Joe Burrow, we know what he's done from a stomping for T standpoint, right?

00:08He's been all over the keep T, keep T, keep T since December 9th on Monday Night Football

00:14against Dallas.

00:15So basically two months ago is when he first made the I'm in on T and since then, what

00:20has he talked about?

00:21Trey Hendrickson, he's talked about obviously Jamar Chase, T Higgins.

00:26Today on Fox Sports 1, he mentioned Mike Gesicki as someone he wants to keep.

00:30But it's those three guys that have been the focus.

00:35And what I thought today, when at the end of his 10 minute or so interview with First

00:40Take, Stephen A. Smith said, let's be honest, it's the Bengals.

00:43How confident are you in the Bengals to keep these guys?

00:47And Joe Burrow gave us 30 seconds of pretty insightful analysis or just an insightful

00:55answer.

00:56Here's Joe Burrow on how they're going to keep their star players.

00:59That ownership, you confident that they're going to be willing to keep all of those guys?

01:04The cap is going up each year.

01:06We just got new TV deals.

01:07We all want to stay together.

01:10So we're all going to do what it takes to do that.

01:13We have great players that have done great things and deserve to be paid.

01:17They're going to be paid what they're worth, whether we do it or somebody else.

01:19I hope we do it.

01:20We've had the discussions that the guys are going to get paid that need to get paid.

01:24So it's a big off season for the Bengals.

01:27A couple of things stand out there for me.

01:29The first one is that he led with the salary cap going up, with TV deals impacting things.

01:38He's been so adamant about, we want to be together.

01:40We want to play together.

01:41I have thoughts on that.

01:43And then the other part here, and I think this is the big part, this is the element

01:46that I'm not sure we've heard before, and I'll read it to you again.

01:51We have great players that have done great things and deserve to be paid.

01:54All right.

01:55Well, that's not anything special that he hasn't said before.

01:58They're going to be paid what they're worth, whether we do it or somebody else.

02:04I hope we do it.

02:06And then here's the part that I thought was the most revealing.

02:08We've had the discussions that the guys are going to get paid that need to get paid.

02:13We've had the discussions that the guys are going to get paid that need to get paid.

02:16Now the we is interesting.

02:18Who is we?

02:20Is it you and Duke?

02:21Is it you in ownership?

02:22Who is the we?

02:24But that is a pretty revealing quote.

02:27And to me, Joe Burrow has been so adamant about it, so direct about it, so bullish about

02:32it for the past two months.

02:35You look at T Higgins changing his agent.

02:37You look at Trey Hendrickson, who his agent will reportedly meet with the Bengals as early

02:42as next week, but in some point in the near future to discuss things.

02:48And you look at how close they got with Jamar last year, and they did get close to getting

02:52that deal done.

02:53It didn't happen, and it's annoying now, but they did get close to getting that deal done.

02:57And it's like, all right, well, clearly there's a plan.

03:00I think that's what this is, is there's a plan.

03:03I think that T, Jamar, Joe, maybe Trey, got together and said, we want to play together.

03:10We know we want to play together.

03:11Or maybe this is Joe going to Trey and saying, hey, man, I want you to stay.

03:15And going to Jamar and saying, hey, man, let's make sure we can keep T around as well.

03:21And T's like, yeah, I want to be here.

03:22And so T switches agents, and those things happen, and boom, just like that, they're

03:27in that position.

03:28I mean, Joe, on every show he went on on Thursday, said similar variations of things, but that's

03:34the quote that stands out to me.

03:35Again, I'll read it out loud one more time for you.

03:39We've had the discussions that the guys are going to get paid that need to get paid.

03:43We've had those discussions.

03:45They're going to get paid.

03:46And the fact that he cited the salary cap jumping up and the TV deal and all of those

03:51things, I don't think he's going in blind here.

03:53I think he's had the discussions with the powers that be.

03:56I have more thoughts on this, on Joe Burrow, on their chances of keeping their stars in

04:01what he's doing at Super Bowl 59, because that is pretty unique in and of itself.

04:07We'll discuss that coming up next.

04:09One thing that I think is interesting is the feel behind this.

04:13I've seen some say, oh, well, Joe Burrow didn't do this for Jesse Bates.

04:17And I think Joe learned from that Jesse Bates experience.

04:20And I also think that it's twofold here.

04:24I'm pretty confident, I will say, that Joe Burrow has talked with the front office about

04:29keeping these guys, extending Jamar Chase, signing T. Higgins to a long-term deal, extending

04:34Trey Hendrickson.

04:35I think that's the plan.

04:37I think that's the plan.

04:38I think when Joe Burrow left Pacor Stadium the last time he did, it was under the impression

04:42that those guys would be signed long term.

04:45Now what Joe doesn't want, and I think why he's talking about it publicly the way he

04:49is, is he doesn't want this to get stuck in the 11th hour where one of these guys gets

04:54away, or one of these guys demands a trade and gets traded.

04:57Trey Hendrickson would be that, right?

05:00The Jamar Chase deal got really close to getting done, like I mentioned.

05:03And we were all over this at BengalsTalk.com last September.

05:08It was basically, the guaranteed money earlier in the deal, it just didn't exist.

05:15It wasn't there.

05:16The structure wasn't there.

05:17They needed more guarantees up front, or earlier in the deal, not necessarily up front.

05:22It didn't happen.

05:24And the guaranteed dollars is what held up that deal.

05:28And I think both sides thought they were going to be able to get it done.

05:31It didn't come to fruition.

05:33Jamar obviously took him a few weeks to get back into the mindset of playing football

05:37again because of the distraction that it was.

05:40And so Joe Burrow is applying the pressure, even though I'm under the impression that

05:49he's expecting and that the front office is anticipating getting something done with all

05:53three of these guys.

05:55So they're probably telling him, yeah, we're going to get something done with these guys.

05:58That's our plan.

06:00And he's wanting to make sure that they don't 11th hour excuse him, because you can only

06:05do that so often and recover from it.

06:08And so I think that that's it right there.

06:10I think that this is a very much, very much a different situation, uncharted territory

06:14for Joe Burrow.

06:15He's so outspoken about it.

06:16I mean, he's going on these national shows and saying these things, and these national

06:20shows think the Bengals are a joke.

06:22They think they're at the poor franchise.

06:24They're not going to be able to keep T. If you talk to the average national football

06:28analyst, they'll say, oh, well, they can't afford T and Jamar.

06:31A lot of your YouTube comments, you can't afford T and Jamar, you can't do that.

06:35That's not how you build a team.

06:37There's no way the Brown family can do that.

06:40And Joe saying, yeah, yeah, but we better.

06:43We better because I know for a fact that there is the cap space.

06:45There is the cash.

06:46There is the resources to get this done.

06:49And he's right.

06:50By the way, he was also asked on Fox Sports one if he would restructure.

06:54And I'm going to be very, very clear here, because a lot of your comments talk about

06:58Joe restructuring like Joe needs to restructure, Joe restructure, Joe restructure, Joe restructure.

07:02Of course, he's willing to restructure.

07:04Joe restructure means is that he's going to get some money and the Bengals are going

07:08to move some money around from an accounting standpoint.

07:11It doesn't hurt the money that Joe gets.

07:14It's just they're moving things around, reshuffling the deck a little bit to create more cap space.

07:20The Bengals don't need to do that this offseason.

07:22I would probably hold the Joe Brown restructure until, I don't know, 25, 20 or 26, 27, a couple

07:29years down the line, because they have plenty of cap space.

07:34They could easily get to $90 million in cap space.

07:37Jamar Chase's extension is going to lower his cap hit.

07:40Trey Hendrickson's, not that they need to do this, but if they extend him, would lower

07:44his cap hit.

07:45Tee Higgins, they have the cap space to sign him and plenty of room, plenty of room to

07:52add to their roster.

07:53So usually you restructure when you need that extra flexibility.

07:58They already have it.

08:00So probably don't need to do it this offseason.

08:02You might want to keep that in your back pocket.

08:04But Joe willing to restructure for those wondering, and of course he is.

08:08I've always said he is for the past two months.

08:12Anytime someone's brought it up, it's like, yeah, Joe would restructure anytime.

08:14They called him right now and asked him to restructure, he would do it.

08:17I'm just not sure that's something that they need to do this offseason.

Joe Burrow on Future of Bengals Stars: Time to Pay Tee Higgins, Trey Hendrickson and Ja'Marr Chase

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