Joe Burrow will demand to be traded from Bengals, claims Colin Cowherd

Joe Burrow had one of the best individual seasons of the decade for a quarterback, but the Cincinnati Bengals still missed the playoffs in 2024. The lack of defensive consistency badly affected the team, which now has important decisions to make in free agency.

With Tee Higgins set to hit free agency, Burrow has been lobbying hard for the franchise to keep him. There are ways to do so: spreading the cap hit through void years while balancing cash flow could make for an easier stance. However, Duke Tobin, their Director of Player Personnel, is still playing hard ball about the extension.

Such is the lack of cohesion for Cincinnati that Colin Cowherd believes that a catastrophic scenario could develop for the franchise: a trade request for Joe Burrow in the next few years:

"The Bengals don't even have a GM. They don't have a real GM. The Eagles have 21 scouts on their website. We look, the Bengals have four. So Joe Burrow, to some degree, is trapped. I absolutely think at some point he'll demand to be traded. Cincinnati has the quarterback that led the NFL and touchdowns, passing touchdowns and passing yards. They had the pass rusher that led the NFL in sacks. They had the receiver that led and catches yards and touchdowns. And they missed the playoffs," he said on The Herd (via @awfulannouncing on X).

The Bengals have no desire to trade Burrow now or at some point in the future. However, they know that he wants a competitive team to return to the Super Bowl. If they do not manage to keep Higgins, his feelings for the franchise will be affected.

Is there enough cap space for the Bengals to extend Tee Higgins?

Cincinnati enters the 2025 season with just under $50 million in available cap space. They will use most of the available cap to contract extensions for Ja'Marr Chase and Trey Hendrickson, but it's still possible to extend Higgins.

They would be able to sign a new contract by adding big signing bonuses in the contracts of the three aforementioned teams, spreading their cap hits for the duration of the contract. It would have a bigger financial cost in the long run, but this is the kind of move usually done by the Philadelphia Eagles, the current Super Bowl champions.