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

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.

When Burrow later appeared on Up & Adams, Kay Adams asked him what a restructured contract would look like.

"We're gonna find a way to make that work," Burrow said.

"I'm going to do what it takes, I know they will too, and hopefully the organization does what it takes to keep everybody around," Burrow went on to say.

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.

If you're counting, that's four sports shows Burrow appeared on Thursday, including the Dan Patrick Show (when Burrow and Patrick talked Cincinnati high schools).

Burrow doesn't often make the media rounds, but is in New Orleans for Thursday night's NFL Honors, where he is nominated for MVP, Offensive Player of the Year and Comeback Player of the Year. The Kansas City Chiefs play the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl Sunday at the Caesars Superdome. Kickoff is at 6:30 p.m.

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