Quote:The Cincinnati Bengals will be looking to wrap up their offseason with another solid draft class, but it is the signing of Orlando Brown Jr. that will be the main storyline heading into the 2023 season.

Adding Brown alongside a rebuilt offensive line from last season, the front five for the Bengals this coming year is shaping up to be a step better.

A key piece to that unit is second-year guard, Cordell Volson. Brown spoke with Geoff Hobson, who is with Bengals.com and had some high praise for his new running mate on the left side of the line.

Brown says he’s been watching Volson’s tape (“He moves so well for being so tall,” and “You can tell he studies” as well as “He’s got a great future”) and while he hasn’t watched Brown yet, the massive 6-7, 313-pound Volson knows the rep.

“Great dude. We’ve texted a little prior to meeting,” Volson said. “Ton of energy. Really good player. Just knowing the caliber of player he is, I’m really excited to play next to him.”

Although the two don’t have a ton of reps completed together, it should be exciting for fans to get a glimpse of how dominating this duo could be this upcoming season.

With Joe Burrow coming off a spectacular season, having even more time to make decisions is only going to help add more to the stat sheet for this ultra-talented offense.

It all starts up front. Watching Brown and Volson go to work this season should be a lot of fun.

(04-27-2023, 02:10 PM)Joelist Wrote: To give credit again to KillerGoose, we actually have Volson's grades game by game graphed out in this forum and they show his trajectory was the right one to be on. He started out rough (like the entire line did as they were totally out of sync) but ended up being at NFL average for his position before and through end of season. And this was with Jonah being unable to anchor and getting beat inside constantly - which makes a Guard's life difficult. With Brown being basically an immovable object against inside and power rushers Volson does not have to be so much on a pivot.

(04-27-2023, 03:05 PM)Sled21 Wrote: Running left behind Zeus and Volson, or running right behind Cappa and Carman/Collins. The running back room has got to be happy.

(04-27-2023, 03:52 PM)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: And imagine a RB that actually has good balance running behind those guys. I swear Mixon is falling forward a ton out there where he could
get so much more explosive runs if he just stayed upright. He gets tackled by invisible defenders a lot lol

(04-27-2023, 05:20 PM)Sled21 Wrote: I really think he is just shell shocked. He's so used to getting hit as soon as he gets the ball at or behind the line of scrimmage, I think if he sees a hole that he can dive into and get 4 yards he just takes it. If he gets used to having running lanes again, his balance may improve, though I really do not expect him to be here.

(04-27-2023, 05:20 PM)Sled21 Wrote: I really think he is just shell shocked. He's so used to getting hit as soon as he gets the ball at or behind the line of scrimmage, I think if he sees a hole that he can dive into and get 4 yards he just takes it. If he gets used to having running lanes again, his balance may improve, though I really do not expect him to be here.