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Fittingly, Cincinnati Bengals rookie quarterback Joe Burrow looks like the best quarterback to enter the league since Andrew Luck.
Call it a great and ominous thing at the same time. Luck, the No. 1 pick by the Indianapolis Colts in 2012, amassed 23,671 passing yards and 171 touchdowns against 83 interceptions over the course of six seasons, reviving a struggling franchise while going 53-33, fully living up to the hype as a generational quarterback prospect.
Then he retired early and suddenly around the age of 30.
Why? The Colts never protected him. Didn’t take the line seriously. Luck suffered 174 sacks over 86 starts, getting absolutely battered and playing through serious injuries, even in the playoffs. He finally said enough and gave up $58.125 million left on his contract.
It’s an extreme example for the Bengals to look at…but a cautionary one.
Things feel good now. Burrow’s the Ohio kid coming home to save a team. He’s looked shockingly good for a rookie passer without the benefit of a preseason.
He’s also been endlessly hammered behind a bad Bengals line. There, left tackle and center are the only guaranteed things going forward thanks to Jonah Williams and Trey Hopkins, respectively.
Other than that the line has been a mess. The Bengals hope a fourth-rounder like Mike Jordan is the answer at left guard. He’s got a 55.7 grade at PFF so far. The Bengals hope an undrafted product like Fred Johnson can fill in at right guard. He’s at 54.2. The Bengals hope first-round bust Billy Price can get back from yet another injury to save one of the guard spots. The Bengals hope Bobby Hart, a seventh-round product, can improve at right tackle. He’s at 66.6.
But hope doesn’t protect Burrow. This wouldn’t be nearly as concerning as it is were this not the Bengals either. We wrote consistently for years the Bengals should’ve never let Andrew Whitworth and Kevin Zeitler both leave and the organization is still trying to recover from those mistakes.
From Day 1 of the Zac Taylor era, he’s gone to bat for offensive line coach Jim Turner, whose resume in the pros wasn’t exactly stellar to begin with. Besides Jonah Williams falling in their laps and having more sense than the last coaching staff to ignore draft status and finally give Trey Hopkins his starting job, Turner hasn’t shown much. Instead, he’s committed black eyes like making it clear Bobby Hart’s job isn’t up for grabs — and giving him a three-year extension worth more than $20 million despite season-long grades in the mid-50s in each of the last two seasons.
Trust is earned and it just hasn’t been there for Taylor or Turner when it comes to the offensive line yet. This was no better exemplified than in Week 1 when they decided to leave Hart on an island with Joey Bosa — to the point Bosa was laughing about it in his post-game presser.
Make no mistake, Burrow going on the run, keeping his eyes downfield and showing some startling accuracy for a rookie makes for fun highlights. But the abuse on his body will add up. Joe Mixon, a guy the front office just paid all that extension money to, can’t get going. It’s only Week 3 and the team is already seemingly throwing out gameplans and needing to find schematic ways to best minimize the amount of time the line can ruin a play.
It’s the sort of schematic and personnel decision making that probably makes it hard for fans to fully, blindly buy into the Burrow hype while ignoring the line problems. This same blindspot, for whatever reason, arguably put a premature end to the Dalton era while ripping the team from postseason contention.
This isn’t a problem exclusive to the Bengals by any means. But it’s quite a bit more concerning that it has been so consistently an issue and now it alone has the ability to derail a No. 1 pick’s development.
Silver lining time? Burrow’s a special player. The Bengals could only make so many roster moves in one offseason and protecting Burrow is clearly priority No. 1 from here. They also won’t play front sevens with Joey Bosa and Myles Garrett every week and the line didn’t have a preseason either.
But in the interim, the Bengals have to hope Burrow’s body can withstand 14 more games of abuse while crossing the fingers it doesn’t derail his developmental arch during a critical debut year. That’s asking a lot, and if it does go wrong, Taylor and Co. are rightfully going to face some tough questions.
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- Studs and duds from Bengals’ Week 2 loss to Browns
- Bengals vs. Browns game recap: Everything we know
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