We still don't know whether Joe Burrow wants to play for the Bengals in the NFL, but we know he wants to play with A.J. Green in the NFL. (Of course he does.)
According to NBC Sports' Peter King, the LSU quarterback most assume will be Cincinnati's pick with the first overall selection in the 2020 NFL Draft "made it clear (at the Combine) he wants the team to sign" Green, the 31-year-old wide receiver who is scheduled to become a free agent this month. King did not specify exactly how Burrow delivered this message, but the Monday report noted the 23-year-old passer met with the Bengals in Indianapolis on Wednesday.
The young QB's desire to play with the seven-time Pro Bowl receiver is natural, and chances are Burrow will get his wish, at least for the short term. ESPN reported Sunday the Bengals "currently plan to franchise tag" Green, which would keep him in Cincinnati for at least one more season.
The question in terms of Burrow's potential satisfaction with the Bengals, though, is rooted deeper than his having a 6-4 veteran receiver at his disposal.
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Yes, Burrow said publicly at the Combine he would "show up" if drafted by Cincinnati, but he has done nothing definitive to deflate rumors of his hoping to play elsewhere — chatter he created himself when he claimed he held leverage as the draft approaches.
During a recent appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, NFL Media's Rich Eisen perfectly presented the situation the Bengals face with Burrow.
"The 'leverage' part of it," Eisen began. "You're slotted. You know how much money you're going to make. You know how long the contract's going to be. The only word leverage comes into play is if you exact it to try and not go there. So if you drop 'leverage,' we all get it. We all understand what you're saying."
Eisen then delivered a perfect analogy: "When asked about it, he goes, 'If they take me, they take me.' Now Pat, you just got engaged. ...
"The reason why I bring all this up, and everybody out there in the Pat McAfee Show listening and viewing audience, you all are getting engaged. What if you heard, second-hand, through a friend of your fiance, that when it was apparent you were about to engage to be married to this woman, her response to her friend was, 'If he proposes, he proposes.'"
A beautiful analogy from @RichEisen on Joe Burrow's comments about the #Bengals and the 1st overall pick #PatMcAfeeShowLIVE pic.twitter.com/p1fYuUWJ5V
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) February 28, 2020
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King expressed similar pessimism in his report: "Though (Burrow) said he would play for the team that drafts him, I still get the feeling he wants to see more devotion to winning than the Bengals have shown."
Burrow, of course, said on The Dan Patrick Show in January, "You want to go No. 1, but you also want to go to a great organization that's committed to winning, committed to winning Super Bowls."
The Bengals haven't won a playoff game since 1990, six years before Burrow was born, and they're 0-2 in their pair of Super Bowl appearances.
So if having Green on the roster softens whatever blow Burrow might think he'll experience with whatever he thinks the Bengals are, then so be it.