How Do We Improve The Line? Will We Do It?

[3wt]

(11-24-2023, 11:11 AM)samhain Wrote: I think the Bengals as an organization have a difficult time coming around to the idea that interior linemen are no longer second tier in terms of position value.  Tackles may make more, but the disparity is far less than it used to be.  They improved with Karras and Cappa, but they gave the big money to Brown.  They evaluate guard and center pretty poorly.  The last "great" guard they drafted was Zeitler.  Price was an early round guy and he was a righteous bust.  

If you aren't succeeding in drafting good interior OL, then you're either going to pay big money in fa or maintain a steady stream of poor to mediocre lines.  They have never wanted to pay for high end guards or centers in fa.  Not even their own.  It was foretold very early on that both Zeitler and Steinbach would get paid someplace other than Cincinnati.  

The Bengals have recently taken a positive step with Cappa and Karras, but it's still been a half measure.  They were better than what we had, but they are far from great.  This year they've been pretty bad.  

The Volson situation is confounding.  I could never wrap my head around a 5th round rookie starting from day 1 to protect the most important human in the organization.  Maybe ever.  Some teams have the talent evaluation skill to identify and utilize unknown prospects at the NFL level, but when it comes to the line, the Bengals are not one of them.

The Bengals have steered toward mediocrity in the interior since forever.  Even when they get a really good player, he's rarely kept long term.  Then they can't replace him.  See Zeitler and the long list of retreads and clowns that followed him before Cappa arrived.  The John Millers, the Alex Redmond nightmare. The XSF guy that never stayed healthy and wasn't good anyway.  Anyone remember the name Christian Westerman?  Then the Adeniji bust.  Cappa was steering back to mediocrity from abject failure.

Tackle is whatever.  Jonah was a starting caliber LT.  Reiff played acceptably before he went out.  Collins had his faults, but he also brought an big advantage in the run game.  Not bad players by any stretch.  They team has shown an ability to find a rotating cast of "good enough" at tackle.  They even signed the top available one this past year.  They haven't done that int he interior.  

Burrow's arrival held them to a higher standard in line building, thus Cappa and Karras, but it's still not enough.  It's not about money.  It's about evaluating talent and placing a real value on it at the positions of g and c.  

This.   KC was able to survive the loss of Tyreek Hill by reinforcing the interior of their OL (Thuney, Humphrey and Smith) with one high priced FA and two really good draft picks (a 2nd and 6th round picks).   I still believe losing Hill was a mistake, but their approach to strengthening the IOL has born fruit.  This is what has been missing for Burrow.  I applaud their strengthening their edges, and the efforts to strengthen the interior. but the focus needs to be the interior.  Give Burrow a solid interior pocket to step up into and he'll carve defenses up.

That needs to be the focus this year.  Whatever money we have needs to be reserved for Tee, Reader and Williams - players we know are good.

We need to do a better job drafting in the interior - and IDL next.