O-Line Cost Us a Championship

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(02-20-2022, 10:48 AM)SHRacerX Wrote: While I laughed at the image, you can't say that when it happened, you weren't excited about the Cordy Glenn trade, the Billy Price pick, the Jackson Carman pick, the signing of Reily Reiff....who was a solid contributor before the injury.

I look at it this way:  (And I don't expect it to be a popular opinion, but hear me out)  The Bengals offensive line wasn't a problem against the steelers or ravens.  Nor was it a problem against the Chiefs.  They won all six of those games, playing each of them twice.  So what happened?  When they faced a defensive line that could beat you in multiple ways:  The Browns when their guys were healthy.  The Titans defensive line.  The Raiders defensive line.  The Rams defensive line.  They were over-matched.  The offense struggled.  Was the offense completely shut down?  No.  No, it wasn't.  They still won a lot of those games.  Why?  The offense could scheme to overcome some of the deficiencies against those defenses.  Could it overcome all of them?  Obviously, also no.  

Where am I going with this?  Well, will the Bengals face a defense like the Rams again?  Donald is retiring.  That team is in shambles.  The 49ers have a tough defense, but have QB issues.  The Packers will always be in contention as far as they have Rogers.  But does their defense frighten you?  What AFC defense do you think the Bengals can't handle?  We don't know how we would fare against Buffalo, but KC sure owned their asses and the Bengals can beat you just as many ways.  KC's defense?  Mahommes contract kicks in next year.  It will be interesting to see how that team handles their new found cap issues.  They went "all in" like the Rams spending on FA acquisitions for their line.  No idea how they will look next year.


Please don't interpret this as a "hey, we are just fine...don't change a thing", but the narrative that the Bengals have no shot with the line they have and won't be able to be back next year is just not accurate (not saying you are saying this, but just in general).  EVERY TEAM has significant issues.  I think the Bengals are in a GREAT position to make next year's team even better while many other teams will be using duct tape (per your image) to try and compete.  

Will it be easy?  Hell, no.  But I sure like their chances. 

I can honestly and truly say no to all of those with no hindsight involved...
-I didn't think Glenn was going to be so bad, but I didn't like that it moved them down in the draft. I wanted Ragnow. 
-As for Price I generally am out on Ohio State OL and again, I wanted Ragnow. 
-Jackson Carman I didn't like at all from the getgo because you generally shouldn't take 300+lb guys with preexisting back conditions and I wanted Liam Eichenberg (who admittedly didn't play well either, lol, but that's who I wanted).
-Riley Reiff I was never really excited for because I was warning from Day 1 that he would get hurt some time during the season. If a guy in his age 33 season has been hurt the previous 5 straight seasons, you can pretty much just assume he'll be hurt again. He was also merely a 1 year 33-year-old bandaid and not a solution for the OL. Instead he was the only change in the starting OL from the game that tore up Burrow's knee in 2020.


You're right, that isn't going to be a popular opinion. None of that changes the fact that Burrow was sacked 70 times, the run game was pathetic, they weren't good on 3rd down, couldn't convert short yardage, and weren't good at scoring TDs in the red zone. Burrow managed to escape this season with "merely" an MCL sprain that he had to play on for two months. Wooo, upgrade over having to completely rebuild his other knee the previous year. Except they're literally shortening Burrow's career right now with these OLs. You say don't interpret it as a we're just fine, but that is a whole lot of words that basically give the impression that's exactly what you're saying.