The Cincinnati Bengals have one task this offseason — fix the offensive line in front of Joe Burrow.
There are other needs, yes (chief among them re-signing Jessie Bates). And Ja’Marr Chase was the right pick. The team also couldn’t help that right guard continued to be a revolving door and veteran right tackle Riley Reiff had to go on IR late in the season.
Prerequisites out of the way…there are no more excuses.
Burrow was sacked 70 times in total this year after coming back from a season-ending knee injury early. A whopping 51 of those happened in the regular season, with 19 more in the playoffs. He suffered a knee injury of unknown severity in the Super Bowl.
The quarterback himself will tell onlookers that he played a part in those gaudy sack totals (and he did!). But it doesn’t matter — Burrow can’t be expected to have a long, productive NFL career getting hit the way he has.
Luckily for the Bengals, they had the most projected cap space of any playoff team. They’ve got the fourth-most projected space of any team in the league ($55.8 million) before making a cost-saving move like cutting Trae Waynes.
They’ll also have early premium picks to put to the task, too. Yes, they’ll be picking 31st, but that’s not a terrible spot to be when seeking out say, a starting-caliber interior offensive lineman.
Unlike this past offseason though, there can be no excuses in the pursuit of upgrades. Yes, the team technically has second-round product Jackson Carman on the roster and he could potentially be a starter. But relying on that hope he can pan out is a risky play that could put the Bengals and Burrow right back in a really bad spot.
Just relying on guys to pan out is something the team did when say, it let Andrew Whitworth walk simply because Cedric Ogbuehi was on the roster.
Fans know how that turned out.
Not to suggest Carman will be a flop of that magnitude. But the greater point is that four of the five spots should be up for grabs, the lone exception being Jonah Williams. That means gunning after the biggest free agent names, like Brandon Scherff. It means pouring draft capital into the problem again.
Because fun as this run to a Super Bowl earlier than expected was, the Bengals won’t sniff it again if the accumulated hits Burrow’s taken keep piling up alongside the missed games due to injuries.
The task of fixing the line starts right as the Super Bowl ends by turning an eye toward free agency and the draft.
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