Besides Joe Burrow being limited at practice, another discussion troubles Bengals fans: the possibility of losing him to another NFL team. It’s practically garish to think of the star QB in any other team’s colors, but there is a limit to everyone’s patience. Burrow is by all means a Super Bowl-worthy quarterback, but has only been to the game once, and has come back empty-handed.
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Down the line, sports agent Rich Paul believes Burrow might be headed down South.
“I think at some point, down the road, Joe Burrow ends up a Dallas Cowboy,” Paul said on the Game Over podcast. “I think it happens.”
“If Joe Burrow went to the Cowboys and won a championship, could you imagine?” co-host Max Kellerman wondered.
“I’m just telling you, I think it’s going to happen,” Paul replied with conviction. “It’s almost like an inevitable thing. It’s just like those two things makes all the sense in the world.”
Former Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson also hinted at a possible Joe Burrow exit.
“If it doesn’t go well in Cincinnati this year … Joe Burrow is gone,” he said on CBS Sports. “I think he wants to leave, and what’s going to be interesting is, where does he go?”
Burrow is playing his seventh season this year, and hasn’t been to the playoffs since 2022. He remains the crown jewel of the Bengals; there is no Super Bowl campaign without him in the mix. But unlike the past few years, there seems to be an urgency in Burrow this year. On multiple occasions, he has echoed how this year is going to be everything for the team.
“You can keep pushing it down the road or you can talk about it now and say this is the year,” Burrow said in August. “You know, I’m tired of saying, ‘Next year, next year, next year.’ This is it.”
Burrow should be tired of all the waiting. He’s tasted the high of playing in the Super Bowl in only his second year in the league, and has given more than everything to get back there. However, his own injuries and the lack of a Super Bowl-worthy roster have held him back. Burrow wants to win so bad that he’s also pitched into roster decisions for the team.
He pushed the team to draft fellow LSU teammate Ja’Marr Chase in 2021, which gave the league one of the most electric pass-catching duos. And per insider Dan Patrick, Burrow also sent an “ultimatum” to the team before trading for Dexter Lawrence, for whom it sacrificed a valuable No. 10 pick in the 2026 draft. The star DT, now on Burrow’s side, was one of the best interior pass rushers in Week 1.
Things are turning around for Burrow and the Bengals, which will help him to live up to his commitment to the team.
“I’m here for the long haul. I’m not going anywhere. I’m just trying to bring a now-or-never mentality to the day-by-day process. If you’re not, what are you doing? Attack the day with a championship mindset. The rest will take care of itself,” Burrow told Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com early in the year. “I’m just really proud to be quarterback of the Bengals. I’m happy to be here. I’m proud to represent the city of Cincinnati, state of Ohio, the Brown family. I’m just proud and I want to make everybody else proud, too.”
However, this is Joe Burrow after all. And there are winning teams he could call home. The Pittsburgh Steelers and the Los Angeles Rams, for example, both have aging quarterbacks in Aaron Rodgers (who will retire after this season) and Matthew Stafford, respectively. With rookie quarterbacks waiting in the wings, both teams could have their fortunes turned around if Burrow makes the move.
Now, if we look into Paul’s prediction, it holds weight. Firstly, even though the Cowboys have a productive quarterback, Dak Prescott will turn 34 next season. Backing him up this year is Sam Howell, and there’s Joe Milton III on the practice squad. But everyone knows that Burrow will be the cream of the crop.
Team owner Jerry Jones has an eye on Burrow, too.
“They should have had Co-Comeback Player of the Year,” Jones said when speaking to TMZ in 2022. “Dak deserved that. Just, frankly, heroic the way he came back. The way he actually performed, the No. 1 offense in the NFL. That should have been a Co-Comeback, but I don’t want to take anything away from Burrow.”
Burrow is now on a five-year, $275 million contract extension that he signed ahead of the 2023 season. It’s the best time for Burrow to live up to his words or start things afresh with a new check in hand and a new challenge to prove himself in a new place.