Dan Patrick said Joe Burrow is the one calling the shots in Cincinnati, adding that he was told the quarterback told management they had to do something defensively or he was out of there. Patrick said on Monday that he was told Burrow gave the Bengals an ultimatum, a claim that lands just as the team has overhauled that side of the ball.
That overhaul now includes Dexter Lawrence, the three-time Pro Bowler the Bengals got after moving the No. 10 pick, along with Jonathan Allen, Bryan Cook and Boye Mafe. The Bengals had discussed what they would get with the No. 10 pick before making the trade, but one rival general manager said there was nobody with Lawrence’s talent in this year’s draft and said he would take Lawrence over every defensive player available. Another rival called Allen another defensive tackle with Pro Bowl honors, described Cook as the best free-agent safety on the market and labeled Mafe a Super Bowl pass rusher.
The move is the kind of swing Cincinnati has been searching for after years of pressure on Burrow to carry too much of the load. The Bengals are also not done with their calendar yet: after trading away the No. 10 overall pick, they will first be on the clock with their second-round pick, and the rest of the roster will still have to come together around their quarterback. A separate report on Joe Burrow trade rumors also underscored how firmly the team wants to keep its core intact while it tries to turn things around.
There is still friction in the picture. Andrew Whitworth, speaking on The Pat McAfee Show, criticized Trey Hendrickson’s run defense even while calling him “a helluva player” and noting that he is “ranked at the top of the group when it comes to sacks and pressures of the quarterback, no doubt,” before adding, “But let’s go look where he’s ranked in the run game in all those years as well. And it ain’t up at the top.” The Bengals’ new push suggests they are trying to answer that criticism with personnel, not just talk, before Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins are expected to show closer to voluntary field work in mid-May.
If Cincinnati got the message from its quarterback, it has already started to respond. The question now is whether the front office’s spending spree, paired with a defense that has drawn public criticism, is enough to make the Bengals look less like a burden on Burrow and more like a team built to help him win.
