3x Super Bowl winner critiques Bengals for spending $270,000,000 on WRs - “Protecting Joe Burrow is far more important”

Joe Burrow reportedly encouraged the Cincinnati Bengals to sign contract extensions for Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins during the 2025 NFL offseason. He got his wish when Chase agreed to a four-year, $161 million deal, while Higgins agreed to a four-year, $115 deal, both record-breaking.

Speaking in an episode of "Breakfast Ball," Three-time Super Bowl winner and current NFL analyst Mark Schlereth criticized the decision to commit so much money to the position this year.

"Protecting Joe Burrow is far more important than signing two wide receivers," Schlereth said. "I said this a long time ago, I would have moved Tee Higgins, signed Ja'Marr Chase, and addressed my offensive line."

"So, to me, again, this is about not understanding how you win championships. You win them from the inside out, not from the outside in. And hey, I'll commend them for signing their guys, they're great players. I just don't believe that's how you build a football team."

Protecting Joe Burrow has always been an issue for the Bengals during his career in Cincinnati. He has been sacked 196 times, the second-most by any quarterback since 2020, trailing only Russell Wilson. This includes being sacked 48 times last year, the fourth-most in the entire NFL.

Schlereth believes that this issue is only going to get worse now that the franchise has committed such a large portion of its salary cap to its wide receivers. This limits its ability to sign better offensive linemen in free agency, which he believes would have been more valuable to its potential success going forward.

Joe Burrow's outlook after Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins' extensions

Burrow, Higgins, Chase

Joe Burrow is coming off an impressive 2024 NFL season, where he led all players with 4,918 passing yards and 43 touchdown passes. This was the second time in the past three years that he has finished inside of the top five for the NFL MVP award voting.

His yardage and touchdown totals also set new career highs for Burrow, but that still wasn't enough for the Cincinnati Bengals to make it into the playoffs. This raises serious questions about his outlook after Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins agreed to record-breaking contract extensions. He should continue putting up massive stats, but the Bengals' postseason chances are in serious jeopardy with their salary cap limitations of improving their blocking and defense.