Bengals Using Bye to Evaluate O-Line Before Matchup Against Steelers' Dominant Defense

Bengals Using Bye to Evaluate O-Line Ahead of Week 10 Matchup Against Steelers' Dominant Defense

The Bengals kept Joe Burrow clean in Sunday's 31-20 win over the Titans. The rookie quarterback wasn't sacked for the first time this season.

What makes this stat even more intriguing? None of the Bengals' opening day starting offensive linemen were a part of it. 

The "Jim Turner originals" were out due to injuries. Left tackle Jonah Williams was dealing with a stinger. Left guard Michael Jordan was sick, Bobby Hart is recovering from a knee injury and Trey Hopkins had a concussion. 

Alex Redmond, who wasn't on the Bengals' opening day roster, was the only linemen that was in the starting lineup prior to Sunday. Fred Johnson, Hakeem Adeniji and Billy Price played every offensive snap (73). Veteran Quinton Spain, who signed with the team two days prior, was on the field for 62 (85%) of the offensive snaps. 

“You get a group of guys like Hakeem Adeniji, Billy Price, and Fred Johnson, who have been in that locker room for a while now. It’s next man up," Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said following the team’s second win. “The expectation is that they’ll play like a starter, and that’s what they did. They were ready for their opportunity. None of them were nervous.”

The Bengals selected Price in the first-round (21st overall) of the 2018 NFL Draft. The third-year center was awarded a game ball for his play on Sunday. Price has battled injuries and lack of playing time, but he earned big-time praise from his head coach.

“He’s about everything we want our players to be about," Taylor said. “He’s a guy who came in with expectations and never wavered from that. His opportunity hasn’t always been exactly what he thought it would be, but he comes in with a smile on his face every day and goes to work. I couldn’t be happier for Billy because he’s earned this opportunity. You never know how things are going to shake out, but I’m really proud of the person, the man, and the player he is. Our guys can learn a lot from Billy.”

Fixing the Bengals' offensive line has been a roller coaster for Turner since he was hired in 2019. Clint Boling retired due to a health issue. Cordy Glenn was a problem in the locker room. When looking at the stats through seven weeks of football in 2020, it’s fair to say the offensive line has been a below average and inconsistent unit. Burrow's been sacked 28 times, which is the third-most in the NFL. 

The original starters on the offensive line had their best game in Week 4 when they allowed one sack in the Bengals' 33-25 win over the Jaguars.

Now that the NFL world has seen what Cincinnati’s backups can do, is the door open for competition? 

“We thought that the five starters that have been the starters were doing a nice job for us these two weeks before the game," Taylor said. "Saw some guys take advantage of their opportunities. No reason to make predictions, but again, felt good about the direction that the line was heading going into this game.”

Sunday's stellar performance from this ragtag group does raise some eye brows about the future of the offensive line. 

You can expect to see Williams and Hopkins back in the lineup if they're healthy enough to play against the Steelers in Week 10. 

What about left guard and right tackle? How are these players evaluated? Can they earn more playing time?

"A lot of the guys that are maybe backups and don't get all of the opportunities in practice they want," Taylor said. "You always gotta stay ready in this league, because you never know when it's your time to shine and you've got to take advantage of it. I think overall we're always overly cautious as coaches to not celebrate one performance too much."

The coaching staff isn't expected to make any declarations about the line, but they have to be encouraged with the way their guys played in Sunday's win. They have extra time during the bye week to continue to evaluate their starting lineup. 

“Those are questions that we get the chance to work through this week, and again it was a really good performance by those guys [backups],” Taylor said. “Also feel like the five linemen, [the] starters have been playing really well the last two weeks. You don’t rush to make decisions like that and we’ve got time, but certainly have confidence in a lot of guys at that position right now”.

Protecting Burrow in Week 10 should be high on their priority list when preparing for a Steelers defense that ranks 6th in the league with 13 takeaways. 

The Titans' pass rush is far from vicious. They have 57 quarterback pressures on the year. 

Pittsburgh is a different animal. The Steelers' pass rush is the best in the NFL. They lead the league in quarterback hurries (41), to go along with their 30 sacks and 96 quarterback pressures. 

Pittsburgh takes pleasure in torturing opposing quarterbacks. They have an annual tradition of blowing up offensive game plans with their dominant pass rush. 

Whoever the Bengals' decide to start in Week 10 is going to have to deal with T.J. Watt, Bud Dupree and company.

It's up to the coaching staff to find the right five guys for the job. 

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