The Cincinnati Bengals have taken a beating nationally while understandably finding themselves linked to Joe Burrow.
And yet, there are worse places for a prospect like Burrow to land.
The Bengals boast droves of prior quarterback experience among the coaching staff. Burrow would work with a wicked set of talent at the skill positions with A.J. Green, Tyler Boyd, John Ross, Joe Mixon and Giovani Bernard, provided everyone returns. And while there hasn’t been a win, this is a team that has seven playoff appearances dating back to 2005 in a stout AFC North.
As for the quarterback specifically? Cincinnati has had just two franchise passers since about 2003. It smartly built around Carson Palmer and Andy Dalton on their rookie deals. It paid Palmer more than $84 million over eight seasons and Dalton more than $83 million and counting over nine.
Cincinnati is far from perfect — but it’s a better spot for Burrow than the following (oddly) propped-up locales.
Washington Redskins
The Bengals often take public beatings while Washington somehow gets a pass.
And while the Redskins don’t necessarily need a passer since they took Dwayne Haskins last year, the topic will come up since they hold the second pick.
Just keep in mind this is a franchise still blindly searching for its past glory. It has four playoff appearances dating back to 2000. It has 12 losing seasons and nine or so head coaches over that span. Attendance is terrible, the front office spends ill-advised money, its own players trash talk coaches, the culture was so bad a league-best left tackle refused to play for it and the team is so bad on the medical side it brought on outside help to try and figure out why it always has one of the most oft-injured rosters in the NFL.