The Cincinnati Bengals love to stick and pick in the NFL Draft. Although that has backfired plenty of times due in large part to their lack of scouting department resources, sometimes it's such a no-brainer that you can't mess it up.
This was the case in 2020, when Joe Burrow was sitting there for the Bengals to take No. 1 overall. A big reason Cincinnati was in a position to make that pick in the first place was due to the hapless Miami Dolphins beating the Bengals 38-35 in overtime, and winning a meaningless regular-season finale at New England right after that to finish 5-11.
By that point, the Bengals were already well on their way to "earning" the first pick in the draft, ultimately landing on a 2-14 record. It was a little more complicated than that, though.
Dolphins owner Stephen Ross tried to get head coach Brian Flores to tank in the midst of Miami's 0-7 start to the 2019 season. Flores defied those ordered and rallied Miami to finish the year on a 5-4 run. Ross was later found guilty of tampering to make a power play for the coach-QB combination of Sean Payton and Tom Brady.
Nevertheless, leading up to the 2020 draft, Ross was doing all he could to trade up for Cincinnati's top pick and the rights to Joe Burrow.
Now that the quarterback Miami did draft fifth overall, Tua Tagovailoa, is benched in favor of Quinn Ewers ahead of Sunday's Week 16 game against the Bengals, the lore around Burrow and the Dolphins has become the stuff of instant, expanded legend.
Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered multiple first-round picks for Joe Burrow once upon a time
NFL Media's Ian Rapoport dropped a bombshell report in January 2022 about just how smitten Ross and the Dolphins organization was with Burrow. Here's the key bit of intel:
"Sources say Miami was willing to trade all three first-round picks it had in 2020 -- including the No. 5 overall pick that wound up being Tua Tagovailoa -- and potentially more. There was not a consensus on what it would take, just that Miami wanted to try. The Bengals made sure it wasn't a thing."
Yeah, Cincinnati wasn't about to sacrifice the chance to draft Burrow, but with hindsight being 20/20, what could that Bengals draft class looked like had they not hung up the phone right away?
Let's dive into retro mock draft land. I'm nothing if not a sucker for elseworlds draft outcomes after all. We'll keep Cincinnati's ensuing Day 2 picks from 2020 the exact same.
- Round 1, Pick 5: Justin Herbert, QB, Oregon
- Round 1, Pick 18: Justin Jefferson, WR, LSU
- Round 1, Pick 30: Robert Hunt, OL, Louisiana
- Round 2, Pick 33: Tee Higgins, WR, Clemson
- Round 3, Pick 65: Logan Wilson, LB, Wyoming
Holy haul, Batman!!
A 1-2 receiver punch of Justin Jefferson and Tee Higgins!? Now maybe the presence of an aging A.J. Green and Tyler Boyd would've precluded the Bengals from targeting both Jefferson and Higgins...but still.
That elseworlds outcome I referenced, and is linked above? It had to do with the 2021 draft, when I advocated on real-life public record for the Bengals to mortgage their future so they could go all-in around Burrow by drafting Ja'Marr Chase, Penei Sewell, and Kyle Pitts in one fell swoop.
The Dolphins famously passed up Justin Herbert in favor of Tua, as Herbert went to the Chargers a pick later. It turned out to be an all-time 2020 QB class, starring Burrow, Herbert, reigning Super Bowl MVP Jalen Hurts and Packers star Jordan Love.
Had the Bengals pulled the trigger on the Dolphins' proposal — which could've included more assets beyond their three 2020 first-rounders — they could've been in position to draft Sewell in 2021 to solidify their perpetually bad offensive line sooner, too.
Anyway, it's wild that Tua played well enough to earn a massive second contract just like Burrow did, yet found his way to the bench before the first season of that new deal even lapsed. How much better off could the Dolphins have been with Burrow over Tua? We'll never know! And us Who Dey Heads are so grateful for that!
I contend that my Bengals 2021 draft pipe dream is still something they should've done. They would've indubitably won a Super Bowl by now.
This hypothetical Herbert scenario? Not so much. Those alt-universe mock draft picks obviously benefit from knowing how elite Jefferson is, and how good of a pro Hunt turned out to be after Miami picked him 39th overall.
As nice as that Bengals core could've looked with Herbert as the centerpiece instead, I'm glad they didn't make that trade and rolled with Burrow instead.
In any event, the Miami-Cincinnati connections and world-collisions that set the stage for the 2020 draft serves as fodder for one of the most compelling "what if?" subplots the NFL has ever seen.