An ESPN report suggests the Dolphins offered Cincinnati four first-round picks for the change to draft Joe Burrow in 2020

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow (9) takes a hit against the Miami Dolphins in a 2022 game. | Cincinnati Enquirer-USA TODAY NETWORK

Like it or not, Miami Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa always will be connected with Joe Burrow as two top five picks in the 2020 NFL draft, and that applies to the organization as well.

For the third time since that 2020 draft, the Dolphins will face the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday, which may or may not have prompted a report from ESPN’s Adam Schefter that the Dolphins offered the Bengals four first-round picks for the first overall selection and the chance to take Burrow.

This wasn’t the first time we’d heard of a multiple-pick offer, but the previous reports always suggested it was three first-round picks the Dolphins offered and not four.

Remember that the Dolphins had three first-round picks in that 2020 draft, inititally sloted for the fifth, 18th and 26th slots. Miami wound up taking Tagovailoa with the fifth overall pick, tackle Austin Jackson at number 18, and cornerback Noah Igbinoghene at number 30 after trading down four spots with the Green Bay Packers to get an extra fourth-round pick and give Green Bay the opportunity to take quarterback Jordan Love.

There are a couple of things that stand out about the report.

THE WHY AND WHEN OF THE REPORT

The Dolphins haven’t faced the Bengals since the forgettable Thursday night game in Cincinnati in 2022 when Tagovailoa left the field in an ambulance as the result of his scary concussion, so the timing of the report certainly makes sense that way.

But it also comes at a time when both quarterbacks are at crossroads with their organization.

In Miami, Tagovailoa got benched this week after a sub-par performance — forget the final numbers because there was nothing accomplishd in the passing game until the score was 28-3 early in the fourth quarter — in a prime-time loss that got the Dolphins eliminated from playoff contention.

With a lot — and we mean a lot — of uncertainy surrounding the Dolphins franchise heading into the final weeks of the regular season and into next offseason, there now are reports that the team is prepared to move on from Tagovailoa, whether it’s by trade or release.

In Cincinnati, there’s been a lot of talk about Burrow’s frame of mind in the midst of yet another highly disappointing season by the Bengals highlighted by a press conference where he talked about needing to be happy to keep playing football, though he later softened those comments a bit.

That hasn’t stopped the speculation that maybe Burrow might want a fresh start somewhere else, though maybe he would not out-and-out demand a trade.

The situations involving Tua and Burrow can’t be ignored when it comes to Schefter’s report because he didn’t pull it out of the air and there are agendas when information like that gets leaked.

It probably wouldn’t be a stretch to suggest the Bengals wanting that information out there because it creates the narrative that if they turned down that kind of offer for Burrow five years ago, it’s going to take some kind of package to interest them in trading him now.

For the Dolphins, there’s really no upside to having that information out there.

Remember, it wasn’t just Burrow and Tua at the top of the 2020 draft because there also was Justin Herbert.

The chances that all three would be gone by the fifth pick never were considered significant before the draft, so making that kind of offer would indicate they valued Burrow so much more than any other QB in that draft.

The Dolphins went all in on Tua after drafting him and have remained all in until this season, so it’s not like they’re going to suddenly want it known that the really tried to get Burrow and then really tried to make it with their consolation prize.

THE TRADE PROPOSAL ITSELF

If you think about it, it really is wild that if the report is true, the Bengals would value Burrow so much that they’d turn down four first-round picks.

Burrow was a great prospect after a sensational 2019 season at LSU, but he wasn’t an NFL prospect on the same level as Andrew Luck coming out of Stanford or going way back John Elway, also out of Stanford.

And if you recall the 30 for 30 documentary “From Elway To Marino,” the San Diego Chargers refused to accept the Baltimore Colts’ demand of three first-round picks for the first overall pick and the chance to keep Elway in California.

That the Bengals would turn down four first-round picks, one of which would have been fifth overall and could have been used on Tagovailoa or Herbert, is pretty wild and frankly a bit tough to believe.

Cincinnati has gotten to the Super Bowl with Burrow and to two AFC Championship Game appearances, but the Bengals also have missed the playoffs four times in his six seasons.

From a Dolphins standpoint, who knows what would have happened had that crazy trade gone down.

Does Brian Flores coach beyond three seasons? Does the Tyreek Hill trade happen? Would the Dolphins have had more success in 2020 and 2021?

Nobody knows the answer to that question, though it sure is fun to speculate.

In the meantime, Tua and Burrow will be on the same field in the NFL for a third time, but they still won’t play a full game against each other because Burrow was out with a knee injury when the Bengals came to Hard Rock Stadium in 2020 and there was the Tua injury in 2022.

But their connection remains.