Cincinnati Bengals Offensive Line Preview: Are They Ready for Chiefs Star Chris Jones?

The Bengals will be tested in the trenches on Sunday.

Dec 31, 2023; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Cincinnati Bengals offensive tackle Orlando Brown Jr. (75) at the line of scrimmage against the Kansas City Chiefs during the game at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-Imagn Images / Denny Medley-Imagn Images

After a lackluster showing in Week 1, the Bengals are looking to bounce back against what may be their toughest opponent of the season in the Kansas City Chiefs.

The latest iteration of the Bengals' front five returned four of their starters from last year. After the departure of Jonah Williams, the Bengals not only addressed the right tackle position in free agency by adding veteran Trent Brown, but hope they solidified the spot for the long term via the draft by selecting top tackle prospect Amarius Mims with the 18th overall selection.

The Bengals have struggled to have consistency at the right tackle position for quite some time now and while Brown doesn't appear to be the long term answer at the position (he scored a 60% in Week 1 per my grading), I am excited to see if Mims is able to win the spot before the end of the season. If he performs at the level that people seem to expect, when the opportunity arises, we may be looking at the future of the position.

Speaking of the long term future for the Bengals' offensive line, Cordell Volson has been under fire from fans through the first couple seasons of his NFL career. However, after his lone preseason drive and the first regular season game of 2024, it seems as though he has settled into his role as a starting guard. He has made great improvements from a technical perspective and it appears that he is seeing the game much better than ever before. If Volson is able to keep up the level of play that he has shown early on this year, the Bengals may be looking at not only one, but two spots on this line being secure for what could be a significant amount of time. Has this team finally turned the corner when it comes to getting consistently solid play out of their front five?

Now, looking ahead to what may shape up to be one of the most important matchups of the season for the Bengals, what can we expect to see from the current starting five? In Week 1, the left side of the line (Orlando Brown Jr. and Cordell Volson) held up well throughout the game in both the run and pass game. I see no reason to expect anything different in Week 2. The right side (Alex Cappa and Trent Brown) had their fair share of struggles. Whether it was picking stunts or consistently creating lanes in the run game, it felt that the Bengals couldn't count on success from the pair on a down to down basis.

When facing a defensive line that is featuring a top level talent like Jones, there are a couple things to consider.

First, how can you limit his impact not only in the passing game, but in the run game as well? Typically, when discussing top end pass rushers, my mindset is to run the ball at them as often as you can. This slows down their process while also wearing them out over the course of the game.

However, this is a much riskier plan when facing a dominant interior defensive lineman. I would suggest finding ways to get multiple blockers on him in the run game. An easy way to achieve this would be putting him on the front side of the Bengals' favorite inside run play: duo. Keeping him on the front side of the scheme allows you to allocate two blockers to Jones, while also aiming the back to the opposite side of the center.

Secondly, where is he going to align against the Bengals? Of his 57 snaps against the Ravens last week, he spend the majority of his time on the interior on the left side of the center (12 snaps to the left and 9 to the right). While the majority of his reps as an edge player were on the right side of the offensive line (23 at LE and 13 at RE). The Chiefs have always liked to move Jones around and I expect them to attack the weaker side of the Bengals' offensive line by getting him as many matchups against Brown as possible.

While Jones is a game changing defensive lineman, players like George Karlaftis (DE), Leo Chenal (LB) and Drue Tranquill (LB) shouldn't be considered easy matchups.

This is going to be a tough game in the trenches for the Bengals and I am glad it is coming early in the year. If they are able to play up to the Chiefs as they often do, that would show the fanbase that this team hasn't lost a step and is still a contender.

September is always a weird month in the NFL, but a statement win this early in the season would help fans everywhere see that this is still the same Super Bowl caliber team we expect to see on Sundays. This should be a great test for the Bengals' front five and an important opportunity for them to show that the offensive line woes of previous seasons may finally be behind us.

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