Ja’Marr Chase adds spice to Burrow-Mahomes rivalry

Ja’Marr Chase is doing his best to provide bulletin board material for Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.

One of the biggest storylines heading into the NFL offseason was what a contract extension for Joe Burrow would look like in Cincinnati. Burrow has certainly earned a payday, as he is without question one of the best young quarterbacks in the NFL, having led the Bengals to back-to-back AFC Championship appearances while amassing 11,774 passing yards, 82 touchdowns, and just 31 interceptions in 3 seasons as the Bengals’ starter. And that’s with an injury-shortened rookie campaign.

Burrow has certainly earned a contract extension and a big one. Much like the one that Eagles QB Jalen Hurts received just before the NFL Draft, Burrow’s new deal has long been expected to reset the market for quarterback contracts league-wide. Hurts’ and Burrow’s contracts were going to inevitably overshadow contracts previously signed by NFL signal callers because that’s just how things work in an NFL where the billions upon billions of dollars continue to stack on top of each other as networks perpetually up the ante for TV rights each and every year.

It happened last year with Deshaun Watson, Aaron Rodgers, and Russell Wilson. The year before it was Dak Prescott and Josh Allen resetting the market with their deals with the Cowboys and Bills. Tyreek Hill and Laremy Tunsil have done it at non-quarterback positions. It’s going to keep happening. Burrow should certainly expect a deal at or north of $50 million AAV, and if that’s what the market dictates, then that’s what he deserves.

What Burrow does not need is an outspoken teammate adding flames to the only rivalry that is preventing him from deserving to be the top-paid quarterback in the league. If pay and performance are paralleled, then Burrow should certainly be among the most well-paid quarterbacks in the NFL. But should he be the top dog money-wise if he’s not the best quarterback in the NFL? Let’s go to Ja’Marr Chase for his take.

Ah, well then. Joe Burrow is the best quarterback in the league and he is so confident in his abilities to be the best in the league that he wants to take less money to keep multiple Pro Bowl wideouts with him. Listen, I’m not going to act like I’m knocking this mindset. It went a long way for Tom Brady in New England and has probably worked elsewhere too, but I can’t really think of many examples off the top of my head. But let’s not masquerade this notion with the prefix that Burrow “knows he’s the best quarterback in the league”.

Listen, I don’t even care if Ja’Marr Chase wants to prop his guy up and give him his flowers. That’s a good teammate. But I do know there are a lot of people in Chiefs Kingdom who will likely read this, and more who will mob on Twitter, who are going to be harshly opposed to Ja’Marr’s Skip Bayless-esque pontificating. To those who choose violence, I encourage you to do it safely.

dThe Bengals are in a unique scenario with Burrow, Chase, and several other young members of a talented squad. Similar to the situation Buffalo finds themselves in after Josh Allen’s extension, the biggest question facing Cincinnati is how they plan to navigate the waters of having several top-tier wideouts to pay along with Burrow. That’s going to get tricky, but a start would be Burrow taking a little less to facilitate a roster build-out that keeps the Bengals near the top of the AFC. It’s ultimately less about the total and more about structure.

Chase is right in one regard: Burrow doesn’t need the money to prove he’s the best in the NFL. Russell Wilson and Aaron Rodgers, who I mentioned up top, had the two highest cap hits in the league last year and both had subpar seasons with their teams missing the playoffs. Being the top paid doesn’t mean you’re the man. What Burrow does need to prove he’s the best? Super Bowl championships.

After Patrick Mahomes won his first Super Bowl in 2020, he signed a 10-year, $450 million contract extension with the Chiefs. This made him, at the time, the highest-paid quarterback in the history of the NFL, but still maintained status as a “team friendly” deal. That doesn’t mean there haven’t been casualties that the Chiefs have had to face—Tyreek Hill, Tyrann Mathieu, and Orlando Brown, Jr are just a few. Mahomes’ contract thus far has cost the Chiefs a little over $88 million against the cap in 4 seasons, that’s with restructures in both 2021 and another in 2023, shortly after Mahomes won his second Super Bowl with the Chiefs.

So that’s two Super Bowls for Mahomes, two MVP awards, and two Super Bowl MVPs. The most recent trifecta was done with a wide receiver room that totaled $15.6 million in payroll for the 2022 season. Sure, Chris Jones and Travis Kelce are well compensated. Yes, the Chiefs are paying Joe Thuney a lot of money, and Orlando Brown was franchised tagged last year. But to tout a guy as the best while simultaneously saying he wants and needs to keep talent around him to try to get where Mahomes has already been painted the picture for us.

One well-documented yet immeasurable aspect of Mahomes’ game has been his notable pettiness upon feeling slighted by the media, fans, and other players in the league. It’s something that he’s renowned for at this point, with several grudge-filled revenge tours most recently culminating with the Chiefs back on top of the NFL’s mountaintop. Burrow’s extension will land him at the top of the quarterback pay scale momentarily, but it will not secure him the title that Chase has bestowed upon him or that the Bengals are ultimately looking for. For now, that still goes through Kansas City. Unfortunately for Burrow, that means in order to be the best, he’s going to have to beat the best.