Analyzing Cincinnati Bengals' Scheme, Identity, and How To Improve Upon It Moving Forward

Cincinnati's identity has been question since Joe Burrow suffered a season-ending wrist injury in Week 11.

Throughout this week there has been quite a bit of talk about the Bengals “lacking an identity” under head coach Zac Taylor. After a close loss against the Pittsburgh Steelers with Jake Browning at quarterback, an emotional reaction occurred and the topics of the Bengals identity as a team, their scheme, play calling, and head coach all seemed to come into question. 

Let’s take a deeper look at the Bengals identity, scheme, and how they can improve it moving forward:

The Bengals Identity

The Bengals have a clear and well defined identity. They are a pass heavy, spread, shotgun team. This is evident by their pass rate over expected (top in the league), shotgun usage (top in the league), 11 personnel usage (2nd highest in the league). They believe that they have better talent than the opponent and line up to prove it every week which can be shown by their target distribution. They have the second highest percentage of passes going to wide receivers in the league. All of these tendencies were also true last season as they were second in pass rate over expected, shotgun usage, and 11 personnel usage.

You never go into a Bengals game and wonder what they will look like on offense. Joe Burrow will be in the shotgun a majority of the game, the receivers will be spreading the field from sideline to sideline, and they will be in 11 personnel most of the game. 

They have built this team to work in their spread scheme. Everything is constructed to work with it. They have one of the best wide receiver groups in the NFL, they picked a tight end in free agency who is more of a receiver than a blocker, and they find offensive linemen who are comfortable pass setting. The next question becomes if this is the right scheme for the team.

Is the Spread Right For the Bengals?

This spread and shred identity of the Bengals on offense is exactly what Burrow wants as a quarterback. He likes to get five guys in the passing pattern. He likes to give his receivers a chance when they are isolated, he likes to work out of the shotgun a majority of the time, and he likes controlling the game and having the offense run through him.

The most common offense across the NFL is the Shanahan/McVay west coast offense. However, the modern west coast offense is everything Burrow has been ineffective at during his career. Turning his back to the defense, working under center, and not having as much control at the line of scrimmage to get the team into the right passing play. 

Putting him in that offense would be trying to force a square peg in a round hole. It’s what coaches used to do in the early 2000s because their system was more important than the quarterback playing in it. Now, every team builds their system to the quarterback and caters to them. The Ravens have a unique system for Lamar Jackson. Andy Reid has built a Pat Mahomes-centric system in Kansas City. The Eagles have a unique system for Jalen Hurts. 

The Dolphins didn’t take off as an offense until the system was built for Tua Tagovailoa, and even the Rams did not win a Super Bowl until they got Matt Stafford and allowed the offense to work through him rather than having an offense work around Jared Goff.

The spread and shred identity of the Bengals will [most likely] always be what they look like as a team. There is a give and take with getting Burrow under center more often to try to get shot plays off of play action and a more effective run game, but overall that’s never going to be the identity of the offense. Burrow is not just a cog in the offensive machine. He is the machine.

Personnel wise this is also pretty much all they can do this season. Outside of the offensive line, they have one good blocker in Drew Sample. They cannot get heavy with multiple tight ends because Tanner Hudson, Mitchell Wilcox, Irv Smith, and every wide receiver lacks the ability to block. The run game design and personnel is for them to beat teams on the ground when they sell out to stop the passing game. We saw this work against the Ravens in the game Burrow got hurt.

In the seven carries that Mixon had before Burrow went down, he picked up 43 yards (6.14 yards per carry), with five of those plays being successful run plays (71.4%). They found a way to punish Baltimore on the ground for being in two-high (safety) shells the entire game. The Bengals had a 0% success rate against the Steelers and ran for 16 yards on eight carries (2-yards per carry). They are not built to deal with the extra man in the box with who they have on this team.

There is a common argument as well that the offense is actually just Burrow hero ball, but that isn't true. 

Let's look at last season, since Burrow was fully healthy. We can find some statistics that disprove that argument.

Burrow threw 92.7% of his passes from the pocket last year. His average time to throw was 2.4 seconds. Those plays are not Burrow creating something out of nothing from a bad play call, those are plays that worked within the structure of the Bengals offense. The Bengals offense was seventh in points per game, fourth in offensive DVOA, and fifth in EPA per play. They even averaged 28 points per game in games without Ja’Marr Chase. By all accounts an elite offense that mostly occurred within the structure of the Bengals offensive system that was hand crafted to suit Burrow. 

Of course, there is room for improvement.

Tweaks To Improve The Bengals Offense Next Year

Assuming that Tee Higgins is tagged and kept on the team for next season, the Bengals can improve their offense by tweaking a few things.

Personnel wise, the Bengals need to find a tight end that is competent as both a receiver and a blocker. Even better if they can find a guy who is a plus player in one of those areas, while being competent in the other or the Goldilocks tight end that is a plus player in both areas. 

This would be a slight change in philosophy from what they have looked for in that position the last couple years. They have attempted to find the good receiver and hand waived the blocking part away, but they need to value the blocking a tight end can bring more often. Their run game involves tight ends having to block defensive ends. Duo and power are both run concepts that require tight ends to block the defensive end in front of them. They could also lean a little bit more into 12 personnel if they found this tight end which would give them a change-up from their usual 11 personnel looks. If the tight end is unable to block, then defenses can treat it like 11 personnel without any drawbacks. However, 12 personnel with two tight ends that can block would allow the Bengals to grind opposing teams with their run game.

Schematically, they should give Burrow more easy buttons on offense. The current offense is just very difficult for everyone involved but especially the quarterback. Rather than making their runs RPOs where Burrow needs to think and read post snap, give him true run plays where he can just turn his brain off and take a breather. 

Burrow also has a slight tendency to throw the RPO rather than hand it off. That’s why there are so many screen passes on early downs. It’s typically some type of throwing option on a run play. The Bengals started to go under center some in the 49ers game and they should continue to do that. It will not be the identity of the offense, but going under center improves the run game in theory while also allowing for boots and easy gains off of play action. Burrow has shown that this style of offense shouldn’t be what he does primarily, but it could help the offense to throw in there once in a while. It was effective when they got to it this season for a few plays in a game.

When it comes to Taylor's play calling, it could benefit them to get to some run concepts more often and build more play action off of them. The Bengals are effective on both power and trap concepts and could stand to call them with a bit more frequency. They have shown effective play action off of these concepts when they pull the guard.

pic.twitter.com/YWWmKIcIWS

— Walter (@Pff_Walter) November 30, 2023

They can still major in duo and tight zone as an offense, because those runs work against almost any front, but they should find a way to get fronts they like to run power and trap more often as well to help their play action game. Also with their pass heavy tendencies they should call more running back draws to help slow the pass rush. Run heavy teams fake the run and throw the pass with play action. Pass heavy teams should fake the pass and run with draw plays.

Lastly, they could use a highly touted pick along their offensive line. Insert either a round 1 offensive tackle or a round 2 interior lineman into the offense that is a highly touted, athletic player with strength. They have built a decent offensive line with a ton of free agents and cash, but in the past three years, they have not attempted much at offensive line other than day 3 picks and Jackson Carman. Day 3 picks rarely hit (especially for the Bengals) and Carman was seen as a reach by most draft analysts. Carman also didn't go through athletic testing pre-draft and doesn't play like a top of the line athlete. 

The defensive backs room has flourished with young, athletic talent after the Bengals spent three premium picks on the position group and a late 3rd rounder that seems to have hit in Jordan Battle as well. Now it’s time to inject cheap young talent in the offensive line room.

Contrary to what some people seem to claim, the Bengals offensive system has been effective. This year felt like a waste because of the injuries to the quarterback, but that doesn't mean that they need to dismantle the established offense board by board. They should continue to grow the offensive system that Burrow prefers to play in with minor tweaks to make it more effective.

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