Burrow Ranked As 2nd-Best QB In The NFL By ESPN!

[BFritz21]

(07-15-2024, 05:34 PM)ochocincos Wrote: We've been saying this about every year for the past few years, have we not?

2020:
LT - Jonah Williams
LG - Michael Jordan
C - Trey Hopkins
RG - Alex Redmond
RT - Bobby Hart

2021 - Bengals replaced Jordan and Hart with FAs Quinton Spain and Riley Reiff, plus Jackson Carman in the draft should push out Redmond/Adeniji! Finally, a good OL!

2022 - Bengals added Karras, Cappa, and Collins in FA and added Volson in the draft to compete with Carman at LG! Now it's really a good OL! This is the year!

2023 - OMG Orlando Brown was added! Seriously, this is really the year!

2024 - Holy cow, Trent Brown in FA AND Amarius Mims in the draft?! THIS HAS TO BE THE YEAR!!

The reality is none of OBJ, Volson, Karras, or Cappa has been dominant at this point in their Bengals careers, and two new guys coming to the team who we haven't seen in stripes yet. On paper, this OL should be damn near dominant, but I'm personally trying to factor in the previous few years' worth of history that maybe this OL won't be.
I want to see them in action the first month or even two before I really feel the OL is ready to even be considered average, let alone above average.

Yes, some might consider me pessimistic, but how can I not be after seeing this OL underperform for the past 4+ years despite adding player after player after player?

I get your skepticism, but a few things that I forgot to mention are that he's finally healthy enough to be under center and mobile (the article mentions health but not much in detail) and how a very much improved running game will make Joe's life a lot easier, as well as lining up under center again makes it more difficult for defenses to just tee-off on the pass rush.