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The Cincinnati Bengals hit the football lottery in more ways than one with the No. 1 pick and Joe Burrow.
As things stand now, the Bengals are one of only a few teams in the NFL lucky enough to work around a rookie quarterback’s contract under center.
That likely played a part in the front office seemingly having no issue opening up the checkbooks in free agency this offseason, inking big names like defensive lineman D.J. Reader.
As Spotrac pointed out, only 15 teams project to have a cheap quarterback under center — and even fewer get to do it with a rookie contract:
Likely 15 teams will start a QB with an AAV <$10M in 2020
G. Minshew
C. Newton/J. Stidham/B. Hoyer
D. Lock
L. Jackson
D. Watson (maybe)
D. Haskins
J. Allen
T. Taylor/ J. Herbert
D. Jones
S. Darnold
T. Tagovailoa/R. Fitzpatrick
M. Trubisky/N. Foles
B. Mayfield
K. Murray
J. Burrow— Spotrac (@spotrac) July 22, 2020
There’s a wild variation in the quality of quarterbacks listed, of course. A veteran like Tyrod Taylor has to fight for his job with a rookie Justin Herbert. Cam Newton got a prove-it deal in New England.
For the Bengals, they’d prefer if Burrow was more Deshaun Watson than Mitchell Trubisky, of course.
The latest update on contract talks between the Bengals and Burrow reportedly have “no hiccups” at least. Even before that formality gets settled though, the Bengals made sure to capitalize on the unusual amount of cap space under center to beef up the roster elsewhere.
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