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Cincinnati Bengals fans don’t need told the offensive line is the biggest need this offseason.
But some context sure never hurts.
The line was a disaster for the Bengals in front of Joe Burrow, hence the change from Jim Turner to Frank Pollack at offensive line coach. Injuries didn’t help, but more pressing was the personnel decisions made by the staff and inability to coach up the talent, leading to the season-ending injury to Burrow.
Pro Football Focus’ Sam Monson recently looked at the biggest need for every team and provided some advanced metrics on this problem area for the Bengals:
“Burrow was put under pressure on 32.2% of his dropbacks this season, and 21.2% of those pressure plays resulted in a sack. Cincinnati’s offensive line as a group combined to surrender 181 total pressures and ranked 27th in the league in pass-blocking efficiency. They need to attack the offensive line in a huge way to prevent a repeat disaster.”
Fixing these issues will likely require a tandem of heavy lifting in free agency and the draft.
While spending big on free agents could allow the Bengals to make the ultimate luxury pick at No. 5 in the draft, the reality is they won’t be the only team willing to spend huge money to fix a line via the open market.
The above is why this offseason need to be “whatever it takes” for the line in front of the star quarterback. As an aside, Burrow sounds like he’s still on track for Week 1.
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