If Burrow is causing so many of these sacks...

[Shake n Blake]

(02-18-2022, 08:41 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Finley isn't even in the league anymore because he wasn't even an NFL-caliber backup. He's just bad at (NFL level) football. As for Brandon Allen and Andy Dalton, rather than do all that math you only needed a couple numbers...

Andy Dalton Bengals Sack%: 6.6  (that's from 2016-2019 only, it was 5.3 from 2011-2015)
Brandon Allen Bengals Sack%: 5.9
Joe Burrow Bengals Sack%: 8.2

That's a significant different, Shake. One that can't be easily waved away from there just being one source of problem.

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Andrew Luck's mentality led the Colts to the playoffs his first 3 years in the league, including to the AFC Championship game... it doesn't change the fact that it ended his career. Burrow's had a completely rebuilt knee in year 1 and now an MCL sprain in the other that's taken him down screaming in pain multiple times that he had to play on for 2 months in year 2.

Keep his mentality if you're fine with only 5 years of Joe Burrow. Change his mentality at least some if you actually want 15-20 years of Joe Burrow.

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...and this is coming from a guy who's been among the loudest for years about needing to fix the OL, so you know this isn't me scapegoating Burrow or anything Shake. These two matters of the OL being awful and Burrow needing to change aren't mutually exclusive.

None of those sack percentages are good, and we seem to agree that Burrow being aggressive is the reason the sack % went up this year. Without looking, I'm guessing the sack % was lower for Burrow in 2020 (but still very bad).

Andrew Luck had awful lines as well. He just never changed to protect himself. He shouldn't have had to though. Didn't he also have a problem with sliding? He ran a bit more than Joe.

You're not going to throw any QB behind this line and see anything less than 40 sacks, and that's if you neuter the offense to protect the line. I'm saying that's the wrong mentality to take.

We don't reach the Super Bowl this year if Burrow had to play like Dalton, making one read and throwing quickly. Getting in the habit of checking down at the first sign of danger. We know this line is doo-doo, right? So work on it and let Burrow be Burrow and lets see if we're still giving up 50+ sacks in reg season.

If so, fine. Try to get Burrow to change things up. Until then, I can't sit here and say Joe is the problem when we've always had this problem, but always schemed to hide it.

Fix it first, and see how it goes. If we have a line full of good talent and without multiple guys grading in the 40s per PFF, and Joe still gets sacked 50+ times, sure...let's talk Joe. We haven't seen that yet.

That's all I'm saying.