With the NFL Draft approaching, there is speculation that Joe Burrow does not want to play for the Cincinnati Bengals and that he could try to force a trade.

NFL analyst Pete Prisco doesn’t see that happening.

“Well, he doesn’t have to play, but he’s going to have to sit out,” Prisco said on The DA Show. “Nowadays, if you sit out, you leave a lot of money on the table and there’s only so many earning years in a body. Here’s the thing: People keep talking about Elway. Elway had baseball. He had leverage because he had baseball. Eli Manning didn’t want to play with the Chargers, but the Chargers had a grade that was very comparable on Philip Rivers and they got extra pieces out of it. So they’re different scenarios.”

Burrow, Prisco pointed out, has never stated he doesn’t want to play for the Bengals. Media have speculated about it, much to the frustration of current and former Bengals.

“He hasn’t said that,” Prisco said. “He’s hinted at things. He’s never come out and said, ‘I’d love to play for the Bengals,’ so that’s why it’s out there. But what are your options? To sit out the entire season and go back into the draft? Well, if you go back into the draft, you’re getting drafted behind Trevor Lawrence. That much we know. So now you’re not the No. 1 pick. A year ago, he would have been begging to be the No. 1 overall pick. It makes no sense to me. Go compete. Go there. Become a star. Make the Bengals into a power. And then look around and say, ‘See what I did to the Cincinnati Bengals?’ What’s wrong with that? And what’s wrong with being that kind of quarterback? That’s what’s missing for me when I hear all this talk.”

The Bengals haven’t won a playoff game in 30 years – the longest playoff-win drought in the NFL. But Prisco doesn’t believe the franchise is as bad as many think.

“They actually have more playoff appearances in the last decade than the Dallas Cowboys,” Prisco said. “Dallas puts all this money into their organization, and Jerry has bells and whistles and the greatest practice facility in the world. And there’s been more playoff games played by the Cincinnati Bengals than the Dallas Cowboys.”

Still, owner Mike Brown isn’t exactly known for doing whatever it takes to win. Carson Palmer, in fact, said he never felt like the Bengals were trying to win a Super Bowl. Doesn’t Palmer’s opinion count for something?

“Well, here’s what they don’t do,” Prisco said of the Bengals. “They don’t have an indoor practice facility, which most teams do. Nowadays they almost all have them, and you have to have it. That’s a negative on the Bengals. Their scouting department isn’t as big as others, I get it. . . . [but] they’ve been doing some things right in terms of their drafting, so do you need all those scouts? And look, I get it. I know they don’t spend in-house on a lot of things like some teams do. But when Zac Taylor took the job, he redid the entire building in terms of coaching offices and everything and they spent money to do that.

“I just don’t think that the perception is right,” Prisco continued. “Do they spend like certain teams? Absolutely not. They don’t. They’re a small-market team. I understand that. But to say that they’re not trying to win is ridiculous. . . . If Joe Burrow goes there and he’s who they think he is, then they’re going to win. It’s that simple. You will win. And when you win, things start happening.”

Ultimately, Prisco believes Burrow will be the Bengals’ starter in Week 1.

“If he’s not, he’s a moron,” Prisco said. “I’ll put that out there. A year ago, who were you? You would have been begging to be the No. 1 overall pick. Now you’re the No 1 overall pick. Go bask in it. Go tell everybody out there, ‘I’m Joe Burrow, I’m going into Cincinnati, and whatever perception is out there, I’m going to change it.’ . . . Absolutely he’s playing. Nobody is that dumb to sit out nowadays when you have an opportunity to make that kind of money. . . . If they want him, he’s going to play there – or he’s not playing.”