Joe Burrow is done waiting. Three straight years without a playoff appearance, a turf toe injury that cost him nine games in 2025, and a roster the Cincinnati Bengals just spent an entire offseason rebuilding around him have brought him to this point. He’s tired of saying next year, and he’s made that clear this offseason.
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“I’m just trying to bring a different mentality to my game and to my preparation,” Burrow said. “And I try to treat every day like it’s now or never. Trying to treat every day like it’s my last and try to go make it happen.”
The Bengals beat the Eagles 30-13 in Philadelphia in Week 3 of the 2026 preseason. Friday’s preseason finale against the Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field wasn’t even a game he suited up for, but he still made his message clear.
The Bengals quarterback is heading into year seven in 2026. So far, he’s won the Comeback Player of the Year Award twice and made three Pro Bowls, but he has yet to lift the Lombardi Trophy. An overwhelming majority of football fans and media experts believe that Burrow is a Super Bowl-worthy quarterback. But somehow, time and again, injuries and other factors have held him back from that feat.
Last year, Joe Burrow threw for only 1,809 yards and scored 17 touchdowns. Save for one game, the Bengals lost all other matchups during the time he was sidelined with the toe injury. They stumbled to 6-11 and missed the playoffs for the third year in a row. That track record is exactly why this “now or never” talk lands differently coming from him.
It’s not just talk for the sideline cameras either. Burrow has been saying versions of the same thing all offseason, and it keeps coming back to the same idea.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday last week, Joe Burrow said he’s trying to manifest a championship mentality, both for himself and for the younger guys watching how he carries himself.
“That’s how I’m treating it, for sure. That’s how I’m treating it,” he said.
“You can keep pushing it down the road, or you can talk about it now and say, ‘This is the year.’ And I’m tired of saying, ‘Next year, next year, next year.’ This is it. Life is too short to keep pushing things down the road. I’m trying to instill some urgency and some intensity in everybody to go and be great every day and try to go make it happen.”
Burrow has been reported to be a factor in roster decisions, having played a role in the team drafting Tee Higgins and Ja’Marr Chase. And according to Dan Patrick, he also issued an ultimatum to the team to get Dexter Lawrence from the New York Giants. After all, Burrow can’t be the only player pulling the punches for the Bengals to get the Super Bowl ticket.
He remains the biggest factor in the team’s odds of winning the championship. But he also needs his teammates to meet him where he wants them to. Give him a roster like the 2019 LSU Tigers, and there’d be no debate on who deserves to win the Super Bowl.
Joe Burrow’s urgency has also led many to believe he’d be leaving Cincinnati if they don’t win convincingly this year. There is precedent for this in team history: Carson Palmer infamously said he’d retire if he wasn’t traded, despite having played with the team for eight years. Even though Burrow has not expressed displeasure of this kind with the franchise, the urgency should put the top brass on notice.
“I just would like to say that winning a Super Bowl for the Bengals as the quarterback is pretty damn equivalent to, I don’t know, winning the NBA title for the Cleveland Cavaliers,” A to Z Sports’ John Sheeran said.
The Bengals open September 13 against the Buccaneers. Can Burrow turn urgency into results?