Stephen A. Smith lays into the Bengals' defense and says the team is wasting Joe Burrow's prime years in the NFL.

Burrow’s preference comes through in the answer. It’s “great” to get the deals done early, like the Bengals did with Higgins and Chase. And while the NFL is a deadline-driven business, the deadline when a player is holding in shouldn’t be Week 1. It should be tied to the practical deadline for getting the player ready to go for Week 1.