The Bengals are paying to keep their offense together, emulating a previous Super Bowl winner with an elite quarterback getting his first Super Bowl win.
The Cincinnati Bengals have gotten a lot of flack for paying Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, and Tee Higgins so much money while the defense is getting little attention.
However, there have been some teams in the past that have paid top-of-the-line deals to quarterback and their top two wide receivers. An example many people bring up is the recent Super Bowl champs in the Philadelphia Eagles with Jalen Hurts, AJ Brown, and Devonta Smith.
However, in the latest episode of the Move the Sticks podcast, it was pointed out that the Bengals’ current strategy mirrored that of the 2006 Indianapolis Colts, who would go on to win a Super Bowl that year.
While the percentages were lower for the Colts in a very different NFL landscape, the concept was very similar. The Colts had an opportunity to keep superstar quarterback Peyton Manning happy by keeping his two favorite weapons, Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne (you could even argue that Mike Gesicki is the Bengals’ version of Dallas Clark at tight end).
The 2006 Super Bowl that the Colts would go on to win was Manning’s first, with 2006 being his ninth season in the league. The Bengals have to hope that it doesn’t take until Burrow’s ninth season for him to get his Super Bowl.
The Colts also had two pass rushers locked up in Robert Mathis and Dwight Freeney. The Bengals are working on locking up Trey Hendrickson to continue being their version of Freeney, but they must find another player to get after the quarterback and be their Mathis in this year’s NFL Draft.
