Joe Burrow wants the Bengals to ‘think outside the box’ going forward, here’s what that could mean
Joe Burrow wants the Bengals to try new methods in the offseason.
Joe Burrow is aligned with the idea of the Cincinnati Bengals running it back in 2026, including the same coaching staff and Duke Tobin leading the personnel department, which appears to be the case entering the final three weeks of the 2025 season.
“I think we have great coaches,” Burrow said during his Wednesday press conference. “I think we’re consistently put in good positions to make plays and do our best. Obviously, there’s good games and bad games, just like players have good games and bad games. I have a lot of confidence in everybody that’s putting together the plans for us week in and week out.”
He’s just not aligned with the entire status quo remaining the same.
“That’s not to say that changes don’t need to be made,” Burrow continued. “Not saying personnel or people, I’m just saying what we’ve been doing hasn’t worked the last couple years. So now we have to think outside the box and get creative about where we go from here.”
What does ‘thinking outside the box’ mean for the Bengals?
This is the emphasis of the Bengals’ upcoming offseason, which may as well have started this Monday following Sunday’s playoff-eliminating loss. How does Cincinnati change with the same people running the show?
The Bengals have practically resided in the same box for their entire existence. This is the same club that resisted participating in free agency beyond bargain-bin deals for nearly 30 years before drafting Burrow was an inevitability.
They negotiate contract extensions with their own players in the same drawn-out manner, which has impacted training camp participation. Inclusion of guaranteed money beyond the first year of those deals is still an extremely rare occurrence, which only makes negotiations longer, as the rest of the NFL has no issue working with those numbers in the year 2025.
Dealing with dollars is the first challenge of the offseason, and with plenty of salary cap space and cash to use, it’s where the attention goes first.
Turning up the dial in free agency
More than anything, thinking outside the box should mean getting out of their comfort zone. Going after larger fish in free agency means finding the willingness to break further precedent with future guaranteed salaries. If they deem the roster as the biggest issue with the organization, then take the effort to make it better without a shadow of a doubt.
Cincinnati also sat on its hands for most of free agency in 2025, signing Samaje Perine, T.J. Slaton Jr., and Oren Burks on the first day to safe deals without making any notable splashes to truly elevate the roster. The rest of the first week was an elongated wait just to extend Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins to contracts that should’ve been signed months prior. The offense still needed a starting guard, and that didn’t come until the second week when Lucas Patrick signed a one-year deal. Patrick didn’t even last as a starter.
All of that cannot be repeated this year. This roster is in need of difference-makers on defense, and those typically fly off the shelves when the negotiating window opens in early March. Finding the right players is more important than landing the most expensive players, but if the right players cost a price, be prepared to pay it.
Focusing on different variables in the NFL Draft
The NFL Draft is a different beast. It’s not a matter of cost, but information and reasoning. Too often has Cincinnati relied on draft picks to fill immediate needs, and picks have been used on prospects without the production or athleticism to back up their investment.
Plenty of emphasis has been placed on character and team-captain qualities, but what happens when those players don’t perform well on the field? What good does their leadership do when they’re clear liabilities? The Bengals’ defense has been a clear example of this disconnect over the past few years as veteran leaders have gone to greener pastures, and the likes of Jordan Battle, Barrett Carter, Kris Jenkins Jr., and Demetrius Knight Jr. haven’t been enough to keep the ship afloat.
Clearly, the process needs a significant re-tuning, one that can only happen with fresh and creative ideas that the rest of the league has already adopted. “Fresh and creative” are relative in this case.
Burrow will be here to see it all unfold around him. It’s been three years since the rest of the roster has been capable of matching his play, when his health has been an afterthought. If the process remains stale, then the Bengals will likely find their way back to this spot next year.
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