Bengals' Joe Burrow Talks Ja'Marr Chase, Higgins, NFL Offseason, More in B/R Interview

Cincinnati Bengals fans could be forgiven if they experienced plenty of angst early in the offseason.

After all, the future of their team's dominant aerial attack was very much hanging in the balance with star wide receivers Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins each under team control for just one more season.

Chase was set to be on the final year of his rookie deal in 2025, while Cincinnati placed the franchise tag on Higgins for the second straight year. That Higgins requested a trade ahead of the 2024 free agency period and Chase participated in a "hold-in" during last year's training camp before they both eventually played only added another layer to the situation.

Yet they each agreed to deals in March, ending much of that angst and setting them up for the foreseeable future with Chase at four years and $161 million and Higgins at four years and $115 million.

Nobody understood how important that development was better than the quarterback throwing them the ball.

"When Tee's out there, you can just feel how the defense changes," Joe Burrow told Bleacher Report. "You can tell they can't just focus on Ja'Marr, they have to give attention to Tee. And that opens things up for everybody else.

"And Tee does everything right. We came in together, we've grown together as players and as people. We have great chemistry. You want to keep that around, you don't want to make it a habit of letting great players leave."

Burrow made it perfectly clear even before the extensions were agreed to how important it was that Cincinnati didn't "make it a habit of letting great players leave."

He was quite vocal about his desire for the front office to re-sign the playmakers and even said he was open to restructuring his own deal if necessary. That he wanted Chase and Higgins around comes as no surprise, as they are arguably the top wide receiver tandem in the league.

Chase, who has chemistry with Burrow that dates back to when they were together at LSU, was a Pro Bowler in each of his first four seasons in the NFL and just led the league in catches (127), receiving yards (1,708) and touchdown receptions (17) in 2024. Higgins posted back-to-back seasons with more than 1,000 receiving yards in 2021 and 2022 and finished with 911 receiving yards and nine touchdowns in 12 games last year.

Of course, having a quarterback like Burrow also helps those pass-catchers put up numbers.

All Burrow did in 2024 was complete 70.6 percent of his passes for 4,918 yards, 43 touchdowns and nine interceptions. He led the league in both passing yards and passing touchdowns while breaking his own single-season franchise records in both categories as well.

He was named to the Pro Bowl, finished fourth in MVP voting and won Comeback Player of the Year after he was limited to 10 games in 2024 because of a wrist injury. He also joined Tom Brady (2007) and Aaron Rodgers (2011) as the only players in NFL history to throw for at least 4,500 yards and 40 touchdowns with fewer than 10 interceptions.

"It's somewhat gratifying," Burrow said of his individual success. "I work hard to go out and play well on Sundays. It's a year-long commitment, and I'm very committed. So to produce the way that I produced is definitely gratifying."

Still, Cincinnati finished 9-8 and missed the playoffs for the second straight season after reaching the Super Bowl during the 2021 campaign and AFC Championship Game during the 2022 campaign.

"The team success wasn't there, and we want to get that fixed and find ways that we can be better," the quarterback said. "So I'm just focused on finding ways that I can be better for the guys and better for the team so we can put ourselves in a better position."

Burrow looked to put himself in a better position off the field as well this offseason by partnering with Body Armor for the company's first-ever rebrand that will include new packaging and a refreshed visual identity.

"It's been great," Burrow said of the partnership. "From the beginning, it's really aligned with who I want to be. I always try to choose partners with messaging that you would be putting out regardless. When those things align, that's always a partnership that can last for a long time."

Photo: Body Armor

Body Armor is launching its rebrand with the Choose Better campaign that features athletes such as Burrow, Sabrina Ionescu, CeeDee Lamb and Connor McDavid encouraging people to strive to make better choices in a number of areas, including when it comes to their hydration.

"What I try to do is wake up and get better every day and make decisions that are going to help facilitate that," the Bengals star said. "So when I heard about the campaign, I knew it aligned perfectly with how my mindset has shifted the past couple of years. Just trying to be consistent in my routine. If you're consistent then you're going to continue getting better every day."

That Burrow is still just 28 years old, and getting better every day at what could be the start of his peak is surely terrifying to the rest of the league.

While some NFL players focus on improving in one particular area during the offseason, the LSU product is taking more of a big-picture approach as he looks to take strides from last year's incredible individual effort.

"I'll say I'm at a point where I'm not really going into an offseason and saying, 'this part of my game wasn't good enough, I need to be better there,'" he said. "I think I'm pretty well-rounded. So going into every offseason at this point, I'm just trying to better my overall game. There's not one specific thing that I'm going to focus on. It's just improving all my skills that I use day in and day out to be better overall."

As long as Burrow is improving and under center, Cincinnati's championship window figures to be wide open.

That put the front office under even more of a microscope as it was tasked with maintaining and building a winner around one of the league's best signal-callers. With that as the backdrop, Burrow shared what he felt would qualify as a successful offseason for the Bengals.

"Re-sign our great players and add some talent through free agency or the draft that is going to come in and produce and help us immediately," he said. "We need some guys who can come in and fill some holes that we have. It's a big offseason for us, it's going to be interesting to see how it plays out."

Thus far, it has played out with Chase and Higgins remaining on new deals and the Trey Hendrickson situation still unresolved after the Bengals gave the pass-rusher who led the league with 17.5 sacks in 2024 permission to seek a trade earlier this offseason.

Whether Hendrickson is still on the team when the 2025 season begins remains to be seen, but the Bengals can at least take solace knowing they will still have one of the NFL's top passing attacks for years to come with Burrow, Chase and Higgins.

And that alone means this offseason is off to a solid start for the AFC North team.