The season has not gone as Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals expected it to so far. Through the first three weeks of the year, they are 0-3 with very little positive momentum.
With a game against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, there’s a chance that they drop to 0-4 on the year, and watch as their playoff chances all but slip away. Should that happen, ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky says that it is now on the management in Cincinnati to make a drastic move in order to try and save this team’s future.
“If you lose this weekend and fall to 0-4, your season is over, blouses,” Orlovsky said on Get Up Thursday morning. “It’s probably time to start talking about trading one of those receivers.”
Orlovsky is referring to Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, the leading pass-catchers for the Bengals. Chase has almost 4,000 career yards and 31 total touchdowns in his four-year career, while Higgins has just over 3,700 yards and 24 TDs in his five-year career.
They are two of the to receivers in the NFL, and a luxury item for any quarterback in the league. However, if you have no offensive line to protect, and are finding little success in general, then it may be a luxury that the Bengals can not afford.
The reality is that both players are going to need to get paid soon. Chase is on the final year of his rookie contract, and Higgins is currently playing under a franchise tag in Cincinnati. Orlovsky’s theory is that now would be the time to trade them and recoup some value going forward.
“You’re not signing both of them long-term, and at 0-4, you’re not making the playoffs,” Orlovsky continued. “You might as well try and trade one of those receivers sooner rather than later to make sure that you get maximum value for them.”
It may seem like an extreme action to take, but if the Bengals are serious about turning around their offense, it could be a step in the right direction to gain some capital and spend it at positions of need in the future.
Of course, if Cincinnati is able to right the ship this weekend and get a victory, this may not be the right move for them with playoff hopes still alive. But an 0-4 start with a loss to one of the worst teams in the NFL could be exactly what is needed to push this franchise into selling mode and hit a bit of a reset.
We will see what happens on Sunday afternoon, and what path they choose to take if that shoe drops.
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