Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow thinks this year’s additions on defense make Cincinnati a Super Bowl contender. And wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase agrees.
Burrow appeared on Chase’s podcast and the two of them discussed how excited they are about this year’s defense.
“I just want to win this year,” Burrow said. “I just want to win. The rest will take care of itself. I think we’ll break a bunch of records eventually, but I think we’re going to have a really good team that has a chance to win every game that we step foot on the field for. I don’t know about you, but I could really feel it in my bones, in my soul in OTAs this year, different from years past. Where we brought in a lot of the right guys, a lot of the right people with the right mindsets to go and chase this goal of winning a Super Bowl and winning as many games as we can and being the best possible team that we can. I felt it from our D-line. I felt it from our defense. Our offense has the same guys as years past, so we felt that for the last couple years, as good as we’ve been. But these veteran guys that we brought in on defense to be able to help our younger guys.”
Chase compared this year’s Bengals to the 2021 team that lost Super Bowl LVI to the Rams.
“I can feel it too. The fact that our defense talks a little trash, I like that,” Chase said. “That’s what we need. It feels like 2021 all over again, with the guys talking trash, because we had a lot of guys who talked on defense.”
Burrow repeatedly used the word “excited” when discussing the aggressive move the Bengals’ front office made to trade the No. 10 overall pick in the draft to the Giants for defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence.
“I’m just excited to see Dexter out there. I’m excited to see big Dex out there,” Burrow said. “I’m excited to see Dex in uniform. I’m excited to see what he can do for us. That’s not something we’ve done in the past, trade a first-round pick for a player like that. I know the fans were excited, I’m just as excited.”
Burrow is heading into his seventh year with the Bengals, and they’ve only made the playoffs twice. He believes this is going to be a big year. If it’s not, some big questions are going to be raised about the direction the franchise is heading in.
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