The Bengals should trade down if the Dolphins give them a Godfather offer

The Miami Dolphins want the No. 1 overall pick and Joe Burrow, and the Cincinnati Bengals would be well-served seeing what they have to offer

The Cincinnati Bengals are telling whoever is listening that they will use the first overall pick on Thursday to draft LSU quarterback Joe Burrow. The Miami Dolphins, though, don’t appear to be listening.

The Dolphins are making a last-ditch effort to acquire the No. 1 pick from the Bengals, according to Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio. Their offer to the Bengals is contingent on acquiring the third pick from Detroit, which would then be packaged along with the fifth pick to Cincinnati in exchange for the rights to draft Burrow.

Miami seems enamored of the Athens, Ohio native, and for good reason. Burrow set an FBS single-season record with 60 touchdown passes last season in leading LSU to the national championship. He would be a great fit on a Dolphins team desperate for a franchise quarterback. Dolphins General Manager Chris Grier and head coach Brian Flores want him in South Florida badly.

The problem is, so does Bengals head coach Zac Taylor. Taylor all but gave away the Bengals draft plans on Wednesday, telling ESPN, “We feel very comfortable with him as a prospect. We talked to a lot of guys but certainly formed a really good relationship with Joe and been really impressed with everything we’ve seen from him.”

Adam Schefter of ESPN also reported that the Bengals have closed the door to the possibility of trading away the pick. “They have told everyone thank you very much, but we’re going to take [Burrow],” Schefter said on the Dan Patrick Show. The Bengals seem to be waiting only for Commissioner Roger Goodell to put them on the clock at 8 p.m. EST on Thursday to make it official.

But the Dolphins package might be too good to pass up for a team with holes everywhere. With the third and fifth picks, the Bengals can still take a quarterback—either Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa or Oregon’s Justin Herbert—and add another top prospect at a position of need.

Tagovailoa is coming off hip surgery and will likely need a season to fully recover; Herbert didn’t run an NFL-style offense at Oregon and would benefit from taking a year to learn a playbook. The good news for the Bengals is that Andy Dalton, whose time in Cincinnati was administered last rites following last season, is still there and under contract for another year. The Bengals offensive line was a sore point in a 2-14 season in 2019, and this draft is deep with prospects at offensive tackle.

The Bengals will get their franchise quarterback on Thursday. Whoever it is, he will need someone to throw the ball to. Another possibility for the Bengals is using this new-found draft capital to find a replacement for wide receiver A.J. Green. Green missed the entirety of the 2019 season with a foot injury and is on the last year of his contract. The seven-time Pro Bowler will also be 32 by the start of the season. The Bengals could consider the possibility of trading down from No. 5 into the middle of the first round and use that pick to draft a wide receiver like Oklahoma’s CeeDee Lamb or one of Alabama’s dynamic duo of Henry Ruggs and Jerry Jeudy, who would be reunited with Tagovailoa if the Bengals go that route.

Taylor and the Bengals front office is adamant that Burrow is going to be their franchise-changing pick. But so would the chance to take two—or more—top prospects. It would be, like in The Godfather, an offer they almost can’t refuse.