The Oline - where is it really ?

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(02-05-2020, 12:07 AM)bengalfan74 Wrote: The state of the Oline has been a hot topic and much debated subject over the last few seasons. And it's obvious it needs upgraded especially if we're going with a rookie QB.

The line seemed to show some improvement late in the season. But how much of that was just playing not so good competition ? Who on the Oline is worth keeping, who needs to go ?

Here's a list of guys currently on roster and their stats from pff: (I don't have access to other stats, pressures etc.)

C Billy Price 3rd season 588 snaps 4 penalties gave up 3 sacks overall pff grade 41.8
C Trey Hopkins 5th season 1,097 snaps 2 penalties 4 sacks grade 62.4

G John Jerry 10th season 445 snaps 2 penalties 8 sacks 55.6 grade
G Michael Jordan 2nd season 648 snaps 6 penalties 6 sacks 43.7 grade
G John Miller 6th season 779 snaps 3 penalties 2 sacks 58.6 grade

T Fred Johnson 2nd season 144 snaps 2 penalties 0 sacks 62.6 grade
T Cordy Glenn 9th season 291 snaps 0 penalties 4 sacks 68.4 grade
T Bobby Hart 6th season 1,086 snaps 8 penalties 6 sacks 57.7 grade
T Isaiah Prince 2nd season 70 snaps 2 penalties 1 sack 45.6 grade
T Jonah Williams 2nd season N/A

Two players listed on IR:

T O'shea Dugas 2nd season N/A
G Alex Redmond 4th season 189 snaps 1 penalty 2 sacks 50.6 grade

First off I don't believe pff is the tell all end all. However, these stats line up pretty well with my eye test so..... to say the least we have pretty much a group of barely serviceable NFL wise Olinemen.

Just for some examples the lowest grade on Cowboys Oline was like 68. They have two guys in low 70's and two in mid to high 80's grade wise. Ravens had two guys in 70's two mid to high 80's lowest I saw was again like 68.

Back to the Bengals. I'm quite sure we'd grade out in the bottom 1/4 of NFL, if not the worst. Billy Price thus far has been hot garbage ! He's got bust written all over him. Do we cut bait and run ? John Jerry will be entering season 10 and he gave up 8 sacks in 445 snaps with 55 grade. I don't want to keep our best graded lineman Glenn. Bobby Hart is just a penalty machine and not that good.

Then comes Jonah Williams, who knows what he'll be ? If there's any decent free agents out there we badly need to get at least one if not two ? And we need to move on from some of these guys.

In my mind we need a pretty major overhaul of the Oline.

They need massive upgrades at the Guard position.  One can come from the draft but I really hope they go with both a RT and RG in the draft and get a FA LG.  

I would rather them spend on FA and draft these positions than any other except the first pick, QB.  I could see them trading back in the 2nd round to try and pick up an additional 3rd rounder and they could go QB, RT, RG, and LB in those first four picks.  I know it is stupid to say things like "get your guard in Rd 3", but there is a pretty solid talent pool of guards that could allow for that.  

The best offenses still trump the best defenses...we saw it again in the Super Bowl.  The Bengals will not have a very strong offense unless they have significant improvements on the offensive line.  I don't see those improvements coming from just adding Jonah Williams.  He could help, but they need much more than just "another year older".