Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow will be eligible for an extension this offseason for the first time in his NFL career and the expectation is that a deal will be reached before the 2023 season.

Burrow just completed his third season in the NFL and he's already appeared in a Super Bowl and two AFC Championship games. He's 5-2 in the playoffs and he's 3-1 against Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.

Suffice it to say, Burrow is in line to get PAID.

But how much will he get paid? And how long will the extension be that he signs?

One NFL insider thinks Burrow could set an AAV (average annual value), but not on a long-term deal.

CBS Sports' Joey Corry, a former NFL agent who now covers contracts and the NFL salary cap, spelled out this week what a Burrow extension could look like.

Corry thinks Burrow should opt for a shorter extension (around four years) instead of a lengthy extension like the 10-year deal that Mahomes signed in early 2020.

The reasoning is that Corry believes Burrow will want to take advantage of the larger salary cap that NFL teams are expecting in a few years.

From CBS Sports:

Burrow should consider insisting on an extension no longer than four years to be best positioned for the expected significant salary cap growth in the coming years, thanks to new media rights deals reportedly worth $113 billion over 11 years and an influx of gambling revenue. Four new years was the most common length for high-end quarterback contracts, especially with first-round pick extensions, before the Chiefs signed Patrick Mahomes to a 10-year extension in 2020 when he had two years remaining on his rookie contract. Jared Goff and Carson Wentz signed four-year extensions respectively with the Rams and Eagles in 2019 when there were two years remaining on their rookie deals. The first big quarterback deal after Mahomes was Watson's four-year extension with the Texans when he also had two years to go on his rookie contract.

If Burrow signs a shorter extension, it'll make salary cap management more of an issue for the Bengals (a longer extension makes it easier to manipulate the numbers).

Of course, this is all speculation. No one really knows what Burrow wants in an extension. Obviously, he wants to be well-paid. But is breaking a record important to him? Or does he prefer to take a little less so Cincinnati will still be able to easily build around him?

Burrow's competitiveness and desire to win make me think that he'll focus more on making sure the Bengals have the salary cap room to make needed moves. If that's the case, then I don't think he'll worry about the shorter extension, I think he'll opt for the longer extension.

There is no timeline for a potential extension this offseason. While I wouldn't look for it to get done before the summer, I wouldn't rule anything out when it comes to Burrow. He might decide he wants to get this done early in the offseason so he can focus on the 2023 season. All options are essentially on the table at this point.

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