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Joe Burrow says he's willing to restructure his contract to re-sign key players

Joe Burrow
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NEW ORLEANS — The Cincinnati Bengals face multiple difficult decisions on how to re-sign some of their top players who will in turn demand top money.

Wide receiver Tee Higgins is not currently under contract after a year under the franchise tag (a temporary signing to avoid contract negotiation) and both receiver Ja'Marr Chase and defensive end Trey Hendrickson are eligible for an extension.

Each of those players will demand top salaries at their positions because of their top performance over the past several years. Chase is a nominee for offensive player of the year. Hendrickson is a nominee for defensive player of the year. Higgins is a top talent and arguably could be a number 1 receiver on most other NFL teams.

On top of all of that, Joe Burrow recently signed an extension off his rookie contract, making him (at the time), the highest paid player in the NFL.

While Burrow has been making the media rounds down in New Orleans, the host city of this year's Super Bowl, this topic of how to keep the Bengals high-performing offense together has come up.

Joey B said the team has the space to keep their top players, but when asked on FS1's Breakfast Ball, he said he'd be willing to restructure his own mega-contract to retain his team's top talent, even including tight end Mike Gesicki.

"We all want to play together," Burrow said.

Burrow also faced his share of criticism from First Take host Stephen A. Smith on ESPN, who mentioned the Bengals slow starts the last several years.

"We got to figure out a way to get that fixed," Burrow said.

Burrow was also asked about re-signing both Tee and Ja'Marr.

"We have the space, we need to keep both of those guys," Burrow said.

Burrow doesn't often make the media rounds, but with him being in New Orleans, just down the road from his alma mater at LSU, one might expect he could be in attendance at this year's Super Bowl. The Kansas City Chiefs play the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl Sunday at the Caesars Superdome. Kickoff is at 6:30 p.m.

RELATED | Can the Bengals keep Higgins and Chase?