Bengals “weren’t moving off that first pick” with Joe Burrow available

[Who Dey]

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We don’t know if anyone made a serious offer to the Bengals for the No. 1 overall choice. Or what the best offer was that Cincinnati received.

The Bengals aren’t telling, either.

“We don’t talk publicly about offers. We really weren’t interested in trading it anyway,” Duke Tobin, the Bengals’ director of player personnel, told Geoff Hobson of the team website.

Dolphins General Manager Chris Grier confirmed his team spoke to the Bengals about the top choice. But Mike Potts, the Bengals director of college scouting, said a trade was never an option for Cincinnati.

“We weren’t moving off that first pick,” Potts said. “I could have told you that a long time ago.”

In truth, every draft choice (and every player) has a price. The Bengals likely just didn’t get a good enough offer to move down, knowing if they did, Joe Burrow wouldn’t be there for them.

“We felt good about sitting there and taking him and that was the most important thing to us, more so than what any team might want,” Tobin said.

Burrow returns to his home state after finishing his college career at LSU by winning the Heisman and the national championship. His arrival has provided Bengals fans with as much excitement — and hope — as they have had in a while.

Burrow will sell tickets. Now, can he win games?

“We all felt great about him and the fit for us and for him being here,” Tobin said. “It was, in our opinion, a good year to have the pick if you have to have it. To have a player like Joe is valuable to us. We feel great about it. Now, we have to guide the new players through the offseason.”