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Photos: Joe Burrow officially signs rookie contract worth $36M
CINCINNATI- Former LSU star quarterback, Heisman Trophy winner, and national champion Joe Burrow officially signed his first NFL deal.
The recent No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 draft agreed to a four-year contract with the Cincinnati Bengals worth $36.1 million on Tuesday, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.
That contract includes a $23.9 million signing bonus, which Burrow is expected to receive within 15 days of an executed contract.
Burrow signed the contract Friday, and the Bengals shared a video of the QB at the team facility shortly afterward.
Pen to paper! ? pic.twitter.com/sPSPYA6vDS
— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) July 31, 2020
Wasting no time! @JoeyB is ready to work. ?? pic.twitter.com/a2chpP0SqB
— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) July 31, 2020Trending News
The Bengals chose Burrow with the top pick overall in April's draft following their worst record season in 2019.
Unlike the No. 1 picks that proceeded him, Burrow did not get to participate in a rookie minicamp. Instead, the new Bengals starting quarterback has engaged in virtual workouts and meetings with his coaching staff as the COVID-19 pandemic forced teams to communicate remotely.
His offseason routine has included four two-hour Zoom meetings with coaches weekly. ESPN reports the meetings allotted the Bengals coaching staff time to discuss the nuances of the offensive system with Burrow, even reviewing LSU game film while discussing which parts of the Tigers' offense could be implemented into Cincinnati's offense this upcoming season.
Although the situation is not ideal, the team is happy to have him.
"Everything I would have hoped to have seen in this weird format, I saw," quarterbacks coach Dan Pitcher recently said of Burrow, via Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic. "There's that big void there of taking it to the field and doing it, but we have evidence of him doing it at arguably the highest level a college quarterback has ever done it six months ago. It is college football and the jump, but it's been what I expected and he's pleasantly verified what I thought I was going to see."
Before the April draft, Burrow put rumors to bed that insinuated the quarterback did not want to play for the Bengals, who have not had a winning season since 2015.
"I've won everywhere that I've been," Burrow said on "The Big Podcast with Shaq". "I've never had a losing season in sports from the moment I was five-years-old. I'm not a loser. I just wanna go somewhere where I can win."
Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan is confident that Burrow will grow from the experience and increase the team's chances at success.
"He's a coach's kid, so he's been hanging around football since he was a little kid," Callahan said of Burrow, whose father, Jim Burrow, recently ended a 37-year coaching career that included 14 years at Ohio University. "He's got such a feel for it. A lot of these things aren't new for him."
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