One thing I have learned over 20 years of being a Cincinnati Bengals fan is that ownership does not care about what people think. They have shown time and time again that they believe in their way of doing things. They have started to modernize things a bit more with head coach Zac Taylor showing up in 2019.
But they still have a long way to go, even now.
Although they took huge strides this offseason, many attributed that to quarterback Joe Burrow putting his proverbial foot down and demanding certain
things.
“Internally, there’s a good comfort and confidence with the communication with Joe, and externally that can be spun a little differently,” newly promoted Vice President Elizabeth Blackburn told The Athletic’s Paul Dehner Jr.
Ever since former quarterback Carson Palmer publicly demanded a trade from the team, there has been added weight to the stigma surrounding how this team runs.
We saw it before Burrow was even officially a Bengal, when it was a hot topic of whether Burrow should demand that Cincinnati not select him first overall. Then every move became ‘Get this guy off the Bengals. They don’t know what they are doing.‘ That was true even with moves like drafting wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase fifth overall in the 2021 NFL Draft instead of offensive tackle Penei Sewell.
It seemed outsiders had a bit more ammunition entering this offseason after missing the playoffs three seasons in a row. That feat was not entirely the front office’s fault, as Burrow had some pretty bad injury luck. Still, they were far from blameless. It seemed both ownership and quarterback were on the same page this offseason.
“There were conversations with [Burrow], and he’s always pretty easy to talk to, and there was no rub that he just, he has good conversations that are, I think, productive, certainly not edgy in any way,” Executive Vice President Katie Blackburn said.
I dare not speak for Burrow, but it certainly meant quite a bit to see them use a good amount of resources to improve areas of need and not settle for the mediocrity of the past few years. No long drawn-out holdouts by franchise-level players (not always their fault in Trey Hendrickson’s case). Actually, bringing in proven veteran free agents in areas of need.
We could argue till we are blue in the face about contract structuring and restructuring to have even more cap space available — beyond just the $10 million created with restructuring Burrow’s deal — but making a move like sending the No. 10 overall pick out to acquire a player like Dexter Lawrence is a different level of aggressiveness than we have ever seen from this team.
Still, the only thing that silences the outside noise is winning. The front office positioned itself to do just that this season.
