Joe Burrow trade chatter, a few Titans coaching candidates and what sources are saying around the NFL

Joe Burrow's comments this December have several NFL sharks circling in the Cincinnati waters.

Sources from multiple teams tell CBS Sports they anticipate several teams will attempt a pursuit of trading for Burrow in the offseason. This comes after weeks of Burrow voicing frustration with losing, despite saying he plans to remain in Cincinnati in 2026 and despite the Bengals showing no interest in dealing him.

"There are probably only a handful [of teams] that wouldn't at least make an attempt," said one NFC front office executive.

"They all should," said one source familiar with the Bengals and Burrow. "But the Bengals aren't dealing him, and he doesn't want to leave."

Burrow said two weeks ago he wasn't having any fun playing football and was frustrated by everything. Sources explained then he was venting because he's not winning after making yet another injury comeback, but that he is not contemplating retirement or moving on from Cincinnati.

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Tyler Sullivan

Last week, after being officially eliminated from the playoffs, Burrow didn't deny letting his mind think about not finishing his career in Cincinnati, but that he expects to "play well and consistently great for a long time."

Burrow, 29, is the same age as Andrew Luck when he retired, which has helped give rise to this speculation. But beyond that, Burrow is a former No. 1 pick in Cincinnati who can't get over the hump, just like Carson Palmer years before him.

Following the 2010 season, Palmer asked for a trade out of Cincinnati. Bengals owner Mike Brown declined the request, and Palmer threatened retirement. A cold war ensued between the two sides where the Bengals drafted Andy Dalton and Palmer did not report to the team. It wasn't until the Raiders, coached by former Bengals assistant Hue Jackson, needed a starter that Cincinnati agreed to deal their former top pick for a first-round pick and a conditional second rounder.

Last week ESPN reported the Miami Dolphins offered four first-round picks in 2020 in exchange for the top pick and the opportunity to select Burrow. Cincinnati declined, of course. That was when the Bengals had no other quarterback and had the opportunity to reset as an organization with a top quarterback (one off a Heisman Trophy and a national championship) on a rookie contract.

Now Burrow is playing on a five-year, $275 million extension. What would the theoretical price be?

"Probably depends on if a team has a young QB or players to offer but imagine they won't even answer the phone if you don't have at least two first-round picks plus more," said one NFC front office exec. "Maybe even three if you're not doing it with any players involved."

The floor for any such deal would seemingly be the Deshaun Watson trade from 2022. The Browns sent three first-round picks, two second rounders and one third to the Texans to acquire Watson (and a sixth-round pick).

But even that wasn't enough for one AFC team executive, who told CBS Sports a "Ricky Williams type" of trade would have to transpire. That was when the Saints traded their entire 1999 draft, plus two future first-round picks, to Washington in order to move up seven spots and select the Texas running back.

It is unimaginable such a trade would take place in today's NFL, just as it's unimaginable in Cincinnati's building that the Bengals will trade Burrow any time soon. Still, teams make calls on players presumed to be unavailable all the time.

"You can always ask for shit," said one longtime AFC team executive.

Burrow said earlier this month he "can't see" not being a member of the Bengals next season, and he has a no-trade clause as part of his contract extension. But when asked if he sees himself finishing his career with Cincinnati, Burrow said "a lot of crazy things happen every year."

Elite quarterbacks staying in just one place is more rare than one would think. Troy Aikman is the last Hall of Fame quarterback to have played for just one team, and he was inducted into the Hall two decades ago. Perhaps Ben Roethlisberger is the only future Hall candidate who could get in having worn just one jersey (since Hall voters did not think Eli Manning was worthy of deep-finalist consideration last year). 

Teams that figure to be in the quarterback market include the Raiders, Browns, Jets, Dolphins and Cardinals. The Steelers, Colts, Rams and Vikings could also all be in need of a quarterback depending upon how the early offseason plays out.

And teams that have a quarterback today could also be interested in one of the best players in football. After all, if Cincinnati were to ever trade Burrow, the Bengals would be in need of a quarterback themselves.

No team has more draft capital than the Jets. Gang Green has two first-round and two second-round picks in 2026. In 2027, the Jets have three first-round picks. The five combined picks -- one of which is currently the No. 5 pick in April -- would be enough to acquire nearly any player in the NFL if he were made available.

Setting up Tennessee's imminent coaching search

I don't see the Titans as pigeon-holing themselves into any "type" of head coach ahead of their search process.

Yes, I believe previous experience is going to be a plus after Tennessee fired Brian Callahan after just a season and a half. But I believe the Titans will still interview candidates who have not previously been coaches, and those candidates' vision for how they fill out a staff will be crucial. If a young coach has veteran coaches on his staff, for example, that would be a boost.

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Jonathan Jones

I would anticipate Chiefs OC Matt Nagy and former Packers and Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy to get long looks in Tennessee based off their relationships with Titans GM Mike Borgonzi (Nagy) and president of football operations Chad Brinker (McCarthy). Defensive coordinators like Jeff Hafley (Packers), Chris Shula (Rams) and Jesse Minter (Chargers) have been expected to get interview slips as well, according to sources.

There will be others to interview there, and I wouldn't necessarily call anyone the frontrunner just yet. But I won't be surprised to see this process move quickly in Tennessee considering all the lead time the Titans have had to prepare.

With the benefit of time, this job looks better than it did two months ago. Rookie quarterback Cam Ward has played much better recently, so there should be less hesitation from a prospective candidate. The Titans have won two of the past three, including one over the Browns starting a fellow rookie, and a victory Sunday against the Saints and rookie Tyler Shough would increase the vibes in the Music City.

But maybe even more importantly than the quarterback is Tennessee's owner. Amy Adams Strunk has not developed the best reputation in hiring circles after firing a winning GM (Jon Robinson), a winning head coach (Mike Vrabel), a GM after two years (Ran Carthon), a head coach after 23 games (Callahan) and putting together an initially confusing front office setup, all while rarely speaking publicly and never taking questions from independent media.

"It's been a tough few years for the owner and I could see her fading more into the background," said one AFC team source.

A less involved owner, especially one who has struggled with showing patience, would make the Titans job more attractive.

Shoe soon on other foot for Ben Johnson, Bears

The Chicago Bears are in the playoffs for the first time in a half-decade and, as of this writing, still have a shot at the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs. We all know about the turnaround Ben Johnson & Co. have put together in the Windy City. But how about that "& Co." part?

The Bears are braced for a potential raiding of the Chicago staff this winter.

There are several coordinator candidates who dot this staff. Offensive coordinator Declan Doyle doesn't call plays, but he's been under Johnson's tutelage all season long and hasn't yet turned 30. The Bears could block teams from interviewing Doyle for their OC position if they so choose.

But outside of Doyle and the other coordinators, the Bears can't block teams from interviewing other assistant coaches. Press Taylor has been revitalized in Chicago as the pass game coordinator in his first major offensive role without Doug Pederson as the head coach. J.T. Barrett, the former Ohio State quarterback, has been working his way up the coaching ladder the past few years, and the Bears quarterbacks coach will likely get OC interviews this cycle.

Last but not least on offense is running backs coach Eric Bieniemy. The two-time Super Bowl-winning offensive coordinator saw a brief career decline when he left Kansas City. The matches didn't work with the Commanders in 2023 or UCLA last year. This year leading the running backs for Chicago, Bieniemy has a backfield of D'Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai -- there's just something about seventh-round RB picks out of Rutgers -- has already combined for more than 2,100 scrimmage yards.

League sources believe Dan Campbell will be in the market for a new offensive coordinator this year, and perhaps he pulls from Johnson's staff one year after Johnson took flight from Detroit. 

Defensively, people need to understand just how great of a coach Al Harris has been. The former All-Pro and Pro Bowler has been coaching up takeaways as well as any assistant coach in the league the last few years.

Harris, Chicago's team's defensive backs coach and defensive passing game coordinator, has overseen a unit responsible for a league-leading 21 interceptions. A coach the past 13 years, Harris was previously with the Cowboys. In his final four years in Dallas, the Cowboys had the most interceptions in the league with 72 between 2021 to 2024. He had Trevon Diggs and DaRon Bland as first-team All Pros. Today, the Cowboys have the second-fewest interceptions in the league this season.

The ball is worth millions, and no one has the turnover pelts on the wall like Harris.

The next hot new GM in the NFL? 

I stopped doing hot-names lists a few years ago because, invariably, you leave someone deserving off the list. The list is never long enough for those who aren't on it, and it's always too long for just about anyone who is on the list. But in this space over the past few weeks I have highlighted a handful of names when, during my phone calls across the league, sources bring them up unprompted.

That has happened the last few weeks with Josh Williams, the director of scouting and football operations for the San Francisco 49ers. Williams, 38, is in his 15th season with the Niners and in the second in this director's role, and his name has been mentioned in other NFL facilities as potentially the next new, young general manager of an NFL team. San Francisco has seen Ran Carthon and Adam Peters leave for GM gigs in the past four years, and the team remains loaded with future GMs in John Lynch's front office with AGM RJ Gillen, VP of player personnel Tariq Ahmad, VP of Football R&D Matt Ploenzke and, of course, Williams.

Teams typically don't hire guys to be their GM who are "just" at the director level. But Williams was a finalist for the Jaguars job last year that ultimately went to fellow 30-something James Gladstone. Williams's experience scouting college players (read: evaluating players who will be cost controlled for three-to-five years) will be considered a plus by NFL team owners who have already been exposed to him via the NFL's accelerator program.

At present only the Dolphins have a vacant GM position, though sources are keeping an eye on as many as five other teams that could have openings at the end of the season. Don't be surprised to see Williams -- among many other previously named qualified candidates -- get interviews this cycle.

My long-tail concerns about new stadium trends

We won't know for another decade or two, but something tells me the trends we see with pro sports teams' homes will wind up being cyclical at some point. What was old is new, and what's new will soon become old.

The Kansas City Chiefs will be moving across state lines, where the forever-outdoors team will have a dome in Kansas in the 2030s. There are plenty of complaints I could have here. We could bemoan another generic-looking stadium, or the (likely) loss of another natural grass field, or the use of tax dollars going to these stadia, or some franchises/cities going all-in for the hope of one (1) Super Bowl and/or Final Four hosting opportunity. But that's all for another column.

The old stadiums don't work today because there aren't enough luxury suites and seats to maximize profit. The 75,000-seat cathedrals are being replaced by stadia seating 60,000-plus so that the bigger, comfier seats can bring in many more dollars. That stadium can sit on land surrounding by an entertainment district also owned by the team that pours in money 300-plus days a year rather than for just 10 games. The math is rather easy, especially when team owners get to pocket more of those luxury-seat dollars instead of putting them in the revenue-sharing pool.

But what happens when we reach a breaking point? What happens when fans decide parking for $100 is not going to be worth it? When it costs a family of four a cool grand just for entry into the venue? The price of a drink at games keeps rising while alcohol consumption is at a nearly century-low in America. What happens when the concession money begins to dry up?

Will taxpayers eventually revolt? Will teams try to come back to city centers? Might it eventually be more important to get as many people in the building as possible versus identifying the top socio-economic bands? All of that seems unlikely as we head into 2026, at least immediately. But a lot of what we're seeing today seemed unlikely a decade ago, too.

One last thing on the topic of NFL stadiums. Let's look back 10 years from now and look ahead 10 years from now.

December 27, 2015: Missouri houses the Rams and Chiefs. Illinois has the Bears. There are no NFL teams in Los Angeles. Eight teams play home games under a roof.

December 27, 2035: Missouri has no NFL team. Indiana has two teams. Two teams now play in L.A. Eighteen teams play home games under a roof.

And the state of New York still only has one NFL team.

My weekly uniform thoughts

We get a breather from the NFL Rivalries uniforms this week before they have their finale in Week 18 when the 49ers put theirs on against the Seahawks. I actually think they have been mostly OK, and I appreciate the concept the NFL is introducing after copying what MLB and NBA have done.

One final uniform note as the regular season is about to conclude: teams can only wear their primary uniforms in the playoffs and Super Bowl. So any alternates or throwbacks… those won't see the field in the postseason. The league still wants the teams to look like themselves in the postseason, and I don't know that we will see that changing any time soon.

A PSA if you're waiting for the Week 18 schedule

It may not be until Monday evening that we know the full Week 18 schedule of games. I checked in on this Friday and got that news back. The goal for the league is to have the entire slate figured out post-Sunday Night Football, and that has been done in the past. But the result of Rams-Falcons Monday night game could have Week 18 implications that impact the final week's schedule.

I think, at the very least, we will know by Sunday night who is playing in the two Saturday games that the league hopes will have some seeding drama surrounding it. If the Steelers or Panthers don't clinch their respective divisions this weekend, a win-or-go-home scenario probably places that game into the Sunday night slot regardless of whatever the Rams do on Monday.