PHOENIX — After NFL owners’ gatherings concluded at the Arizona Biltmore, Bengals executive vice president Katie Blackburn sat down for a de facto state-of-franchise interview Wednesday morning, addressing issues raised by Joe Burrows Contract negotiations ranged from Joe Mixon’s status to Jonah Williams’ trade request, the stadium lease and more.
Here are the key takeaways from what Blackburn had to say:
No timeline for the Burrow deal
It wouldn’t be fair to call an extension with Burrow the most important decision of the offseason because there’s no if. But it will be the most influential thing to happen as it will steer the squad’s financial future and is sure to create a significant domino effect.
Blackburn broke news at last year’s annual meetings in Palm Beach, Fla., when she announced plans to build the indoor facility, but she made it clear she had nothing to announce on the Burrow front this year, describing the negotiations as “preliminary discussions.”
“We’ve thought about it,” she said. “But there’s agency and stuff like that. So we’ll see if we can maybe go into that a little bit more. It’s hard to say the exact pace. But we hope something can be done. We sort of said we’re not going to talk much about it until there’s something to talk about.”
Bengal’s executive vice president Katie Blackburn is addressing potential extensions for Tee Higgins and Logan Wilson, alongside Joe Burrow. (Kareem Elgazzar / USA today)
When asked if Burrow himself was involved in those preliminary talks, Blackburn said it wasn’t his voice, but that his preferences were the focus.
“The negotiations will mainly take place through his agent,” she said. “But Joe, at the end of the day, it’s obvious what Joe wants. And so I think Joe needs to be happy and we need to be happy. And hopefully we can be happy together.”
Where the Burrow deal ends up will affect how the Bengals approach negotiations with Tee Higgins, Logan Wilson and next spring’s Ja’Marr Chase. But Blackburn said the team is happy to wait until the Burrow deal is finalized to weigh those options, whenever that may be.
It’s financially possible to sign Burrow, Higgins and Chase for renewals and keep that trio together for at least the next few seasons, but would that be financially justifiable?
“We’ll find out,” Blackburn said. “There’s so many things that come into play, so we’re just going to play it by ear and do our best to see where we’re going.”
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Mixon’s future
The “we’ll see” approach Blackburn took to the Burrow contract discussion ran through the entire 38-minute conversation. It’s not that she wasn’t ready to provide answers, it’s more because the front office doesn’t yet know what they’re going to do, because there are so many variables when it comes to some of the biggest questions to deal with team is currently facing.
And nothing is more moody than the Mixon situation with declining production, a rising cap hit, and a heightened threat attack still in the balance that weighs in on the future of the fifth-biggest rusher in franchise history.
The Bengals could cut Mixon and save $10 million in cap.
They could keep him and honor the contract that is expected to net him $12.8 million this year. Or they demand a pay cut from him.
“Right now he’s on the team and we’re going to count on him until that’s not the case,” Blackburn said.
The two most telling words are “right now,” which Blackburn repeated three times while discussing Mixon, also saying, “Right now, he’s our starter.”
Blackburn said she hasn’t personally spoken to Mixon since January about any of the alleged gun incidents — the one at his home, where prosecutors said he committed no crime, or the street rage, an aggravated threatening case on Jan. 21 in which The charges were dropped but could still be refiled.
“I don’t want to get into how this might end, so I don’t know if it’s fair to say anything,” she said. “But I think it will hopefully resolve soon. He’s done a lot of great things for the team. I think he still has a lot of great production left in him, so I hope his other issues will all be resolved in a positive way.
“I don’t want to say anything is going to happen because it’s not fair,” she added, referring to Mixon’s future with the Bengals. “You saw that other teams have to make moves. Could we get to this point? Perhaps. But it would be down the road here, and we’d have to see if that makes sense or not.”
Joe Mixon finished last season with 1,255 yards and nine touchdowns. (Katie Stratman / USA Today)
The future of Paycor Stadium
The team’s lease expires in 2026, but the recent 16-year naming rights deal with Paycor was a positive sign that it should be renewed. Blackburn expressed similar optimism on Wednesday when discussing the lease.
“It’s about time we start thinking about it,” she said. “We’re actually going in there ourselves this year and making a little bit of improvement and hopefully that sends the message that we’re willing to invest a little bit of ourselves here now. (We) hope that we can look at the whole tenancy situation with the county and find something that would sort out the tenancy situation for a while and work well for the county and us.
Although Buffalo and Tennessee want to build new stadiums north of $1 billion, much of which will be funded by public funds, the Bengals have no plans to go in that direction, with Blackburn citing Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium as a better comparison.
“I think we’re probably going to take more of the Baltimore approach, to be fair,” she said. “I think we have a great stadium. Our stadium is a great asset to the region and we think if we can keep it at a certain level it can serve us well for a while. It’s a big project. And more power for Tennessee and New York to go in that direction, but we think our stadium has been a great asset and can be useful for a while.”
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Here are some of the other big topics Blackburn spoke about:
On the criticism of the slot film turf, which is at Paycor and five other NFL stadiums:
“I really don’t think our turf was a big problem or a problem at all, to be completely honest,” Blackburn said, adding that the team has no plan to replace the turf this year and intends to stick with the original one Schedule to follow set by manufacturer.
“There are a lot of players who like to play on grass, period,” she added. “They do all sorts of studies. You have a lot of data. But all this data, in order to process it fairly, you have to consider many things. So of course we listen to that, but we also look at what is happening and also at our own experiences. I feel like our interface has served us really well so far. Some of our biggest injuries were elsewhere on grass fields.”
Regarding the trade request from Jonah Williams:
“These things happen,” she said. “We will try to have our best team out there. We hear his concerns, but at the end of the day we’ll just have to see how this all plays out. And when he’s here we’ll have our best five guys out there, which hopefully makes us the best we can be. We’ve obviously looked at our offensive line in recent years and really tried to strengthen it, and I think we’ve done that very well. So we have some good options. And if other options come up, it’s like the other stuff, every day is a new day. You don’t know what might come.
“Maybe there are trades that you actually make. It may depend. Sometimes it’s after the draft because you don’t get anything in the draft and then you make the trade. It all depends on the circumstances and you have to weigh the options and try to make a good decision that makes the team better.”
On the mid-season rule change that infuriated the Bengals in January:
“You’re going to keep going,” Blackburn said. “We raised the question of whether they think the existing system should be changed, whether anyone should suggest something different so that it doesn’t come to this before. Nothing has really been done on that front up to this point, but it has been addressed. They might give it a little more thought, just to be sure. Because I don’t think it was the best place for anyone.
“I don’t think anyone would ever want a mid-season rule change. I mean, the league office, I think there’s a general consensus that everybody’s sort of on the same page and nobody would really think that changing the rule in the middle of the season is a good thing.
Regarding the NFLPA poll, which heavily criticized the Bengals in some areas such as training facilities and game day facilities for wives and families:
“It was like, ‘Yeah, well, let’s address that,'” Blackburn said of the classroom, which is undergoing a major renovation. “You had to wait until the season was over to get things going. But yes, this should be a really good renovation of this area that should please the staff and players. Really we have great facilities. We are truly blessed to be where we are. We have a great location. Our stadium is … you still feel like new. But it’s been 20 years, and it’s just time to address a few things and keep it in the state it should be. This is one of the things that I think should help us on this journey.”
And as for the complaints of wives having to breastfeed babies on the floor of public toilets…
“I’m sure we’ll discuss this topic,” she said. “We want everything to be a good experience and we will do everything we can to make that happen. That might address a few things, and that might not address everything. But at the end of the day we try to make it a good experience for everyone. And to be fair, overall I think we really do. Everyone might have a different idea here or there and we will always look at and consider that and see if we can address specific concerns.”
(Top Photo: Dylan Buell/Getty Images)