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Bengals Film Breakdown: Analyzing Cordell Volson's Recent Performance

The second-year guard has taken a few steps forward in recent weeks.

Mike Santagata

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After a rocky start to the season, Cordell Volson has turned it around over the past few weeks. 

He's finally hit his groove and started to gel alongside Orlando Brown Jr. This has come against some tough matchups. He's done it against a Colts duo of Deforest Buckner and Grover Stewart. He also played well against Steelers star Cam Heyward, who had his way with Volson last season. He’s improved upon a few areas throughout the season. 

Let’s dive into the film to take a closer look at the second-year guard:

Footwork

Volson improved his kick slide tremendously. He went from an extremely run heavy system in college that prioritized him understanding his run blocks to an extremely pass heavy system that prioritized him working in pass protection. His kick slide improved tenfold in just the offseason before his rookie year.

This year I think it’s improved again, as he has stopped lifting his feet so much and kept them closer to the ground with each kick.

By keeping his feet closer to the ground, this allows him to change direction quicker and mirror rushers inside on plays. Last year he had some struggles in this area, but this season he has done a better job of it and that starts with his improved footwork on the kick slide.

The other area that has helped him is that he is just doing a better job of moving his feet after contact.

One of the biggest issues that young offensive linemen have is stopping their feet on contact which will allow rushers to beat them to the inside or outside. Volson has done a great job of keeping his feet moving over the past few games. 

Those two improvements in his footwork combine to give him a better foundation in pass protection. Now he can effectively move with rushers as they try to win around the outside or to the inside against him and he recovers a little bit more when he is out of position.

Anchor

Volson is a big guard that weighed 315 pounds at the NFL Combine. He is also an extremely tall guard at six-foot six. This means that naturally he will give up leverage to shorter defensive tackles (average DT height is 6-3), which makes it difficult to anchor and stop defenders from getting underneath of him to push him backward.

Volson appears to have made a concerted effort to get lower, but also be able to reset his hands and get his hands lower than his opponent’s hands if he loses initially. 

That way he can break the leverage that the opponent has and lift them upward. He has been rock solid in terms of his anchor over the past three games and it has helped him hit one of the best strides he’s had as a professional.

It’s not always perfect, but no one is flawless in any offensive line room. The improvement that he has made has given firmer pockets and he has been able to “die slowly” instead of losing quickly. Typically offensive linemen only have to hold up for 2.5-3 seconds on any given play, so dying slowly can work, provided that the quarterback gets the ball out on time.

You can see both the improved anchor and the improved footwork come together in his matchup against Heyward. He did a great job when left alone with the All-Pro defender:

In pass protection, Volson understands the areas that needed improvement and has put in the work to get better. It’s all about consistency and keeping this strong pace up to finish the season, but it appears as if there has been a jump in his play. Especially since the Bengals have done more to help Jake Browning with this offense. That has also helped the offensive line.

Areas For Improvement Going Forward

Like most players, Volson isn't perfect yet. Even during this hot stretch of play, he has still had some errors both in pass protection and in the run game. The three main areas that have shown up the past couple of weeks have been leaning too far forward in pass protection, sustaining blocks, and taking proper angles to the second level.

The leaning in pass protection doesn’t always kill him such as this play where he is able to stay attached and recover:

However, there are also plays like this where the defense takes advantage of his lean and how overzealous he is when trying to kick out the penetrator on a stunt.

His work on stunts has improved, but this play sticks out as an example of why you want to punch that player out, while keeping your head back and your body in control and balanced. Here he’s leaning forward on the punch and he is unable to recover in time to get himself back to take the looper.

He also needs to make sure he is staying square in pass protection. On this play he jumps the defender but then misses his hand placement. It gets worse as he drops his kick foot which gives the defender a short corner to get around him for a quarterback hit.

When it comes to sustaining blocks, this mostly applies to his work at the second level.

His issues sustaining this block are frustrating because he takes a good angle and before contact is made, Volson is in a good position to control this block. The defender however makes the first meaningful contact and gets him in the chest. Volson has some length, but not enough to overcome this and he loses the block entirely. He needs to shorten the distance here and keep the defender close. Protect his chest and instead get into the defender’s chest and drive him on the play.

Sustaining a second level block is the difference between a 5-yard gain and an explosive play. If Volson sustains that block, then Mixon might be off to the races as Alex Cappa clears out the next most dangerous defender.

The other issue that Volson has had the past couple of weeks is his angle of departure to the second level.

This is taking an improper angle on a play and not cutting off the defender to meet him where he is going to be. Volson is a bit of a limited athlete, so that means that he has to be correct on his angles to the second level. He has a smaller window and doesn't have the margin for error to recover like some lineman have due to their athleticism. 

You can see Volson ends up way too far to the inside of the linebacker on this play. The linebacker is able to make the stop even though Volson is now attached and trying to clear him out because he won initially by just beating Volson to the spot.

Again you can see that instead of getting his helmet across the defender and driving him, he kind of catches him and instead is in poor position to make this block. He doesn't sustain the block because he needs to take a better angle in the first place.

It’s tough to be less athletic than your opponent, but most of the Bengals offensive line fits that description. They play at a disadvantage on these plays and instead need to be more skilled and technically sound than their opponent. 

When it comes to Volson, he has looked like a solid offensive lineman and has settled into the season. He has to keep this going with consistency, but the past few weeks have been encouraging. It looks like he's taken a step forward in his young career, which is great news for the Bengals. 

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Mike Santagata
MIKE SANTAGATA

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