Zac Taylor doesn’t sound interested in trading the first overall pick

The draft is almost a week away, and it seems like what many have known to be the almost certain outcome for the Bengals and the first overall pick is becoming clearer and clearer. Cincinnati’s head coach Zac Taylor spoke with The Dan Patrick Show about that very pick, and he gave some pretty easy to decipher answers. The first was to whether the Bengals would change who they are taking with the first pick.

“It doesn’t look [like we will be changing who we are selecting],” Taylor said. “ If there is a guy there that you believe in that can really change the franchise over the next 10 to 15 years, that’s a hard thing to pass up on.”

It is very obvious at this point that we are talking about LSU quarterback Joe Burrow. He is coming off the best year a college quarterback has ever had. He put up incredible numbers against great defenses, and he actually played better when the stage got bigger. There are very few questions about whether he would be selected first overall, but there was some debate over whether another team could blow away the Bengals enough to take that pick away. That is something else that Taylor doesn’t see happening.

“People ask me all the time what would it take to give up that pick. If there is somebody there that people are willing to give up a lot for that they believe in then that really verifies what we think about those players as well.”

It is fair to think at what point during trade talks do you start to question whether you should just take the player? If a team starts offering an absurd amount of first round picks for a player you also believe in at a position of need, maybe that tells you all you need to know about how that team feels about possibly ending up with one of the other top quarterbacks.

You can argue that there is more value in taking whatever hypothetical trade that is offered, but it comes down to this. The Bengals need a change at quarterback. Burrow is one of the best prospects to come out in a few seasons, and there are serious questions about the ext few quarterbacks.

At some point it just isn’t worth overthinking. If you see Burrow as a franchise changing quarterback, take him and don’t look back. That seems to be Taylor’s thoughts at this point.