Joe Burrow Addresses Offseason Trade Request Rumors

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Jay Canale | Last updated Dec 19, 2025 6:00 AM ET

2025 has been a rough year for the Cincinnati Bengals, and it’s been that way from the start. Before the season began, it was edge rusher Trey Hendrickson’s contract dispute and trade request. It was first-round rookie Shemar Stewart, who had to hold out of training camp to get Bengals brass to agree on a rookie deal. A short couple of months later, the wheels fell off. Joe Burrow underwent surgery for a turf toe injury, keeping him off the field from Weeks 3 through 12 — a stretch during which Cincinnati finished 1-8.

This has been a common theme for the Burrow-led Bengals. They have all the offensive skill-position talent in the world, with three of the top players at their respective positions on one side of the ball. The issue is always the rest of the team. The offensive line has never been a strength, the defense has nearly always struggled, and ownership has been consistently unwilling to pay the few quality building blocks on the team.

This has led to widespread speculation among NFL insiders that Burrow might try to force his way out of Cincinnati after this season, with ESPN’s Adam Schefter leading the charge.

Burrow addressed these questions about his future in a press conference on Wednesday. A reporter asked Burrow if he could see a world in which he wasn’t playing for the Bengals in 2026.

"I can't see that, no," he said.

Shortly after, another reporter asked if he’d even thought about playing elsewhere.

"You think about a lot of things," he said. "A lot of crazy things happen every year. Micah Parsons got traded before the season this year... Crazy things can happen."

Burrow and the Bengals have been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, and they’re coming off one of the 29-year-old’s worst quarterbacking performances of his career against the Ravens. The Bengals now have three games to try to instill some sort of positive energy among the team, facing the Miami Dolphins, Arizona Cardinals and Cleveland Browns.

However, the key point in the paragraph above is Burrow’s age. Given the vast number of injuries he’s suffered behind a consistently poor Bengals offensive line, who knows how many more years Burrow might want to play? Is he willing to sit through another year with this coaching staff? Even more, is he willing to sit through a potentially rocky regime change?

Given the number of teams in the league that — right or wrong — feel they might be just a quarterback away, could anyone persuade Bengals general manager Duke Tobin to punt on the Burrow era and try to rebuild?

If there's an offseason when it could happen, it's this one. Teams have the leverage, with Burrow clearly displeased with the team's direction and where they've finished in recent years. It feels crazy to say, given how few quarterbacks of Burrow's caliber have been traded in league history, but Burrow playing elsewhere in 2026 is a real possibility.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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