Film Breakdown: Ted Karras Raises Ceiling of Bengals' Offensive Line

The two-time Super Bowl champ agreed to terms with the Bengals on Monday.

Mike Santagata | Mar 15, 2022

Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

Ted Karras agreed to a three-year deal with the Bengals on Monday. He was most recently the Patriots left guard for a majority of the 2021 season, but has experience at all three interior offensive line spots.

Karras is a two-time Super Bowl Champion with New England. Much like right guard Alex Cappa, who also won a ring with Tom Brady, before agreeing to terms with the Bengals on Monday.

The Bengals hope that both Cappa and Karras will give them the needed improvement along the offensive line to get back to the Super Bowl.

Karras is a smart, technically sound player that can fit in wherever the Bengals need him. Let's get into the film and see who he is as a player.

Where He Excels

Karras is very good at his combination blocks. He has an uncanny ability to know when exactly to come off of the combo to the linebacker and does a good job technically to bump the defensive lineman over with his teammate. At the second level, he does a great job to sustain those blocks so that the linebacker does not get off of his block. This makes up for his limited athleticism when it comes to running wide zone and other zone running plays.

Despite his limited athleticism, Ted Karras is actually a solid fit in the wide zone system because of his technique and intelligence on combination blocks. He has an innate ability to know when to come off of these blocks and does a good job sustaining at the second level. pic.twitter.com/MNhsLqM1y7
— mike (@bengals_sans) March 14, 2022

Similar to Cappa, Karras also has surprising short area quickness to mirror pass rushers despite limited athleticism. This ability allows Karras to be one of the better pass protecting interior offensive linemen in the league. He can move laterally with some of the better pass rushers out there.

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— Wally the dog (@pff_wally) March 15, 2022

Karras does a fantastic job on his stunts. Whether it is knocking out the penetrator and taking the looper or keeping good levels with his teammates to take over the penetrator, he is typically sound in this area of his game.

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— Wally the dog (@pff_wally) March 15, 2022

He also does a nice job of resetting his hands if he loses the leverage battle or gives up his chest. He consistently works to get his hands lower than the defender so that he can lift them up and maintain proper leverage.

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— Wally the dog (@pff_wally) March 15, 2022

Lastly, Karras is a consistent piece along the offensive line. Bill Belichick said that his consistency is one of the best things about him. You know what you're getting every day of the week from him.

Areas of Concern

Karras is a bit of a limited athlete. Sometimes he struggles to get out in front of his running back to lead the way and other times the athleticism shows up when he is trying to track down linebackers to his play side on zone runs.

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— Wally the dog (@pff_wally) March 15, 2022

Karras can be knocked back on initial contact by more powerful players regularly. This initial knockback is sometimes overcome by his ability to reset his hands, but other times it's too much and can be damaging to the play.

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— Wally the dog (@pff_wally) March 15, 2022

Karras also got a majority of the slide help in New England. Shaq Mason is an all-star at right guard, so David Andrews would slide and help Karras more often than not. This gave him an easier job in pass protection.

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— Wally the dog (@pff_wally) March 15, 2022

Film Breakdown: Alex Cappa is Huge Upgrade in Trenches for Bengals

Scheme Fit

Similar to Cappa, Karras should do OK in the wide zone portion of the offense, despite limited athleticism. His work on combination blocks is awesome and that should shine in wide zone. There are concerns about his athleticism, but nothing too major. He fits pretty well in the spread passing game as well. He has a lot of the desirable traits that Frank Pollack is looking for in his offensive linemen.

Overall Thoughts

Karras is a glue guy for the offensive line. He should provide starting caliber play while being able to shift and move to any of the interior spots along the offensive line. There may not be too much upside, but it's a solid addition.

His work on stunts will be greatly appreciated. Especially when you consider how bad the Bengals offensive line was at picking those up at times. To go with that, he does a good job of resetting his hands and mirroring in pass protection so it's not too common for players to get around him.

Where you could see struggles from him is on initial contact. He can get knocked back and lose to powerful players if he does not get help. He also at times will overcompensate for this lack of initial punch and lean into the defender which leaves him susceptible to swim moves and similar moves that take advantage of an offensive lineman who is leaning too far.

He should also be a quality addition in the run game because of his ability on combination blocks. These combination blocks are the crux of the Bengals' run game and they just got a guy who does a fantastic job on them. While he doesn't move players often one on one, he sustains his blocks and does a good job of putting himself in the proper position. His lack of power and limited athleticism will stop him from becoming a great run blocker.

Despite his flaws, Karras is an upgrade for the Bengals in their quest to protect Joe Burrow.

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