Amarius Mims named best pick of 1st Round by PFF

[Joelist]

(05-10-2024, 12:52 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: That's the thing. Many look for a "donkey" to pin the tail on, to serve as the absolute single reason as to why Joe Burrow has had difficulty in maintaining sound health, when in reality it's been a multitude of factors, with poor timing and bad luck coming into play in the issues that you mentioned. Sure, the OL was completely the main problem when his knee was injured, but there were also issues of holding the ball too long and not changing the formation and play selection often enough to keep the pass rush off balance.

Burrow will always hold the ball; it's his style as he is always looking to make the bigger play if possible. The other big issue is that, yes, the offensive system has been pretty OL unfriendly. Predictable play selection, overuse of shotgun and (especially with the extensive shotgun) problems with RB pass protection let defenses tee off on the line because it was too predictable. Notice we started to try to break tendencies and go under center more after the calf was good and suddenly the line looked a lot better, even above average. Then the fluke wrist injury happened and Browning had his time which still saw us breaking tendencies (so the blocking was good) but then he also started holding the ball WAY too long and caused some sacks where faster throws in at least 2 cases would have been TDs. 

The OL is not the dog some keep trying to portray it as, and we have threads here with stats that show this. And remember, even with the injuries we were a dropped TD pass by Boyd away from making the playoffs last season. So this team is not garbage - far from it.