Bengals: Joe Burrow's injury problem has a clear, yet difficult, solution
For the second time in his four-year career, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow suffered a season-ending injury. It's pure coincidence that ligaments in both his left knee in 2020 and right wrist in 2023 were torn in Week 11 of those respective seasons. The cause behind both injuries, as well as the majority of ailments […]
For the second time in his four-year career, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow suffered a season-ending injury.
It's pure coincidence that ligaments in both his left knee in 2020 and right wrist in 2023 were torn in Week 11 of those respective seasons. The cause behind both injuries, as well as the majority of ailments Burrow has suffered, is more causation than coincidence.
For as much investment the Bengals have made in their offensive line, it can still stand to be better. Better in this case equates to having better athletes.
Cincinnati's current offensive line does not warrant a fire alarm by any means. It's comprised of quality starters at most positions. Left tackle Orlando Brown Jr., center Ted Karras, right guard Alex Cappa, and right tackle Jonah Williams would all start for other teams in need at those positions.
This was the vision for the complete rebuild of the unit; going all out for quality at each spot to eliminate obvious cracks in the armor. Clear liabilities up front have hindered the offense for several years, even prior to the drafting of Burrow in 2020. They certainly made his life difficult during his first two seasons despite a run to the Super Bowl in 2021.
The signings of Brown, Karras, Cappa over the past two years (not to mention La'el Collins despite that partnership lasting just one year) were the efforts to right the ship, but we've learned it hasn't been as simple as that.
In spite of a line that's largely full of trustworthy vets (sans a struggling second-year left guard Cordell Volson), the Bengals have the least amount of athleticism there compared to any NFL team. The problem lies in that fact that having average athletes, at best, all across the board nets in a unit that is ill-equipped to face an inescapable trend over recent years.
Defensive lines are getting harder and harder to contain, primarily because of how athletic just the average pass rushers are nowadays. Edge defenders are coming into the league timing under 4.6 seconds in the 40-yard dash, and defensive tackles are not that far behind them. Fast players at those positions are more times than not just as explosive as well, and while some are on the small size, most remain physically imposing in stature.
Just look at this year's NFL Draft. The first edge to get drafted was Will Anderson, who clocked a 4.6 in the 40. The first interior pass rusher off the board was Calijah Kancey and his 4.67 40 time. In case you may not know, both are having very promising starts to their respective careers getting after quarterbacks.
While the NFL is having no trouble finding quality athletes to rush the passer, finding those athletes to protect quarterbacks has become much harder.
No team has more trouble than the Bengals.
The fellas of Gridiron Grading determined that the Bengals' offensive line possess the lowest average Relative Athletic Score out of any team, and their overall pass blocking grade from Pro Football Focus is below league average as well.
In the war against ever-evolving athletic pass rushers, the Bengals have opted to take the most daring route possible, and the results are what they are.
The main consequence is, of course, the inability to protect a $275 million quarterback against the most dangerous quarterback hunters. Burrow's been accustomed to suffering injuries from the 177 sacks, 22 hits while being thrown, and several more moments of contacts he's endured in nearly 2,500 career drop backs. Those figures are inflated from his first two years in the league compared to his most recent two, but as another season of his ends with him unable to play, the problem has not gone away entirely.
And it likely never will, until the Bengals fight speed and quickness… with speed and quickness.
This solution is not an easy one, and even if it was, it will not be put into effect immediately. Brown, Cappa, and Karras all figure to start for the Bengals next season as they are all under contract. To reiterate, they are all perfectly capable pass protectors on their own, but without high quality athletes playing next to them, their lack of athleticism shows up more often, leading to losses against the best pass rushers with some juice.
The first step is adding some juice of their own to complement them. Volson's job at left guard should absolutely be in danger this offseason, and Williams is a free agent that could very well leave for a new beginning. Remember, he requested a trade this past offseason on account of having to switch from left tackle.
Replacing both of them with both capable *and* athletic starters is the ideal first step in righting the ship. It's far too early to tell if this is even plausible with free agency and the draft months away. If it were an easy problem to solve, it would've been solved by now.
Burrow has single-handily sparked change in how the Bengals operate. The next step in further protecting him is finally catching up to speed at offensive line, and I could not mean that more literally.
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