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Cincinnati Bengals rookie guard Cordell Volson was the big question mark on an offensive line that reset at four of the five starting spots.
Volson’s rookie year got off to a brutal start in Week 1 against Cam Heyward and the Pittsburgh Steelers, too, as he surrendered droves of pressures in a tough matchup.
But since? Volson has settled into his role and brought a consistency to the left guard spot that Bengals coaches had hoped would help upgrade the entire unit.
“Every week there is something new he, maybe, hasn’t seen that is new for him,” offensive line coach Frank Pollack said, according to Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic. “But he’s tough. He’s not wavering at all. He’s got the right mindset. He’s never down. He’s never up. He’s even-keel every day. He’s the same guy on every day and every play. He doesn’t waver when he does have a bad rep. He learns from it, he assesses and moves on and gets better from it. He’s improved every week. I’m excited for how he’s trending.”
As expected of a fourth-rounder tossed into the mix, Volson has been far from perfect. He’s sitting on a 52.8 PFF grade with three sacks allowed and four penalties.
But the consistency he brings to the guard spot next to Jonah Williams and Ted Karras makes things easier on them, too. So while Volson may never be a world-beating Pro Bowler or anything so dramatic, the steadiness he’s shown in a very difficult situation has been both impressive and promising.
That’s all the Bengals can really ask for compared to the disaster of a unit they fielded over the previous handful of years.
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