Tag: Orlando Brown

Orlando Brown Jr. appears on first Bengals injury report of the week

Joe Burrow off the report, Orlando Brown on for the Bengals.

The first injury report of the week as the team preps to take on the Arizona Cardinals is something of a mixed bag for the Cincinnati Bengals.

On one hand, quarterback Joe Burrow went full in practice and looked good and mobile while doing so. So much so, he wasn’t technically even listed on the injury report.

On the other, Orlando Brown Jr. surfaced on the report and star wideout Tee Higgins and Cam Taylor-Britt were notables for other reasons:

  • QB Joe Burrow (not listed)
  • WR Tee Higgins (DNP)
  • CB Cam Taylor-Britt (DNP)
  • LB Akeem Davis-Gaither (DNP)
  • OT Orlando Brown Jr. (LP)
  • TE Irv Smith Jr. (LP)

The Bengals are already short at wide receiver with rookie Charlie Jones on injured reserve, which would see to explain the recent practice squad signing. If Taylor-Britt can’t go against the Cardinals, rookie DJ Turner would get many of the snaps.

No word on how serious the problem is for Brown or if this was more of a veteran’s rest day.

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Biggest key matchup for the Lions vs. the Chiefs

Biggest key matchup for the Lions vs. the Chiefs in the NFL Week 1

Tonight the NFL season officially kicks off with the Detroit Lions versus the Kansas City Chiefs. With the Chiefs set to defend their crown as Super Bowl champions, the Lions look to play spoiler and show the world they’re the real deal. That’s the expectation for the Detroit Lions as we head into this season opener.

Win the division and make the playoffs or bust.

Some would even say that the Lions have to not only win their division for the first time since 1993 but they’ve also got to win a playoff game. The expectations are at an all-time high and it’s a weird feeling for fans like myself.

Needless to say, it’s exciting and all signs are pointing to the Lions being a better football team than they were in the past. They’ve just got to execute and all of this should come to fruition.

For their first game of the season against the Chiefs, all eyes will be on the health of tight end Travis Kelce. About as productive and consistent as you can be for a tight end in the NFL, Kelce has proven that he’s the best player at his position. Over the last seven seasons, he’s posted over 1,000 yards receiving and has over 100+ receptions in three of those seasons.

But the attention won’t be on the production we get from Kelce in this game. In fact, it’s all surrounding around his health. He’s currently battling a bad bone bruise on his knee and it’s forced swelling around his knee. This has put his status in serious doubt for the game.

It remains to be seen if Kelce will play or not tonight. If he does, I’d expect plenty of situations where the Lions lock defensive back Chauncey Gardner-Johnson on him. If not him, I’d expect the Lions to bring rookie Brian Branch into the box and have him matchup against Kelce.

However, there’s a much bigger matchup that needs more attention. That matchup is how Detroit Lions edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson does against the Kansas City Chiefs new offensive tackles. For the Chiefs, they have new left tackle Donovan Smith and new right tackle Jawaan Taylor.

While Smith and Taylor are more than feasible, they’re much different players than the previous tackles Orlando Brown and Andrew Wylie. We’ll see how it goes for both Smith and Taylor but it’s always interesting how a player does in a new scheme with new players around them.

Last season for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Donovan Smith finished with a PFF Grade of 58.1 while giving up a total of 6 sacks. His 12 penalties were tied for 4th most in the NFL last season. As for his new teammate, Jawaan Taylor, he had given up 5 sacks last season. This earned him a PFF Grade of 58.7 overall.

So while Smith and Taylor aren’t great, they’re not terrible either. They’re feasible. But the Lions have Aidan Hutchinson and he could needs to start his sophomore season in the NFL the same way he ended his rookie season.

That would be red hot.

Last season, Hutch had four tackles, 0.5 sacks and an interception in a 41-10 victory in week 17 over the Chicago Bears. This set up the Lions game of the year with an end of the season tilt in week 18 against the Green Bay Packers.

With their backs against the wall in Lambeau Field, the Lions emerged victorious with a 20-16 win over Green Bay. In the win, Hutch ended up with four tackles, two tackles for loss and two sacks.

It was a statement win for Detroit. Meanwhile, it was a statement made by Hutchinson. He ended his rookie season on a high note and helped his team get a much needed win on the road in Green Bay. With that, he showed that when he loads the stat sheet and gets after the quarterback, the Lions end up winning the game.

In seven games last season, Hutchinson recorded a sack or a half sack and in six of those games, the Lions ended up winning the game. The only game they lost was when they fell 24-6 to the Dallas Cowboys. Other than that, the Lions came out victorious.

While it’ll be tough to bring Patrick Mahomes down, anything is possible. For Mahomes, he’s been sacked a total of 121 times in his 80 game career. The most he’s been sacked in one game in his career was five times in 2018 against the Arizona Cardinals. It’ll be tough to bring him down five times tonight but if they can find ways to pressure him or keep him contained in the pocket, the Lions defense could do enough to hold on for a victory.

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Helping with that pressure and containment on the planet’s best quarterback is Detroit Lions defensive end Aidan Hutchinson. Keep tabs on what he does on every snap. From where he’s aligned to how he wins during his pass-rush. His presence could be felt from the very first play of the game. Hutch was viewed as the best draft prospect on a plethora of draft boards during the 2022 NFL Draft. Tonight he gets to prove that last season was no fluke and that everyone was right with their assessment on the talented defensive end.

Orlando Brown Jr. reveals he chose Bengals over better offers

Orlando Brown Jr. chose the Bengals.

The Cincinnati Bengals shockingly got one of the biggest wins of the NFL offseason when they signed offensive tackle Orlando Brown Jr., formerly of the Kansas City Chiefs.

That mega-deal in March kicked off a sequence of events for the Bengals, which included shifting Jonah Williams to right tackle — and cemented the Bengals as a super-attractive destination for free agents.

In a new interview with James Rapien of Cincinnati Bengals Talk, Brown revealed that he had higher monetary offers from other teams yet targeted the Bengals:

“The best situation in the world for me is Cincinnati. There was a few other teams involved. The New York Jets was the other option as well. They were kinda going through things with Aaron Rodgers…they had a better price, but ultimately man, this was the best situation for me.”

It’s a fun note from Brown, to say the least. We had previously learned after he signed with the team that it was his camp that reached out to the Bengals, not the other way around, like some might’ve thought.

For his part, Brown wants to form an All-Pro tandem with Cordell Volson, while Williams has started to excel at right tackle.

The full interview:

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Orlando Brown Jr. wants to form elite duo with Cordell Volson

Bengals OT Orlando Brown Jr. has big plans as he teams up with Cordell Volson in the trenches.

Orlando Brown Jr. sees big things for the left side of the Cincinnati Bengals offensive line in 2023.

Brown has praised Cordell Volson, the guy he’ll be lining up next to on every play, often since his arrival. And Joe Mixon just had some eye-popping praise for Volson, too.

Early this week, Brown chatted about how he hopes the two can form an eventually-elite duo.

“I believe we’re going to have a lot of success together because of the system that we’re in, where he’s in in his career, where I am in my career,” Brown said, according to Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com. “I haven’t made All-Pro yet. He hasn’t made All-Pro yet. He has what it takes to be that dominant left guard. Very strong. He has an incredible way of bending for his size, which is why he’s able to play inside and have success. Very long for a guard and I think he moves really well, too. Most importantly, I think he understands his strengths and weaknesses. When you’re an offensive lineman and you understand that, the sky’s the limit.”

It’s an exciting prospect for Bengals fans compared to the last few years, to say the least. With Jonah Williams looking great at right tackle so far, as we’ve said often, this could be the best line of the Joe Burrow era.

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Orlando Brown Jr. apologizes for the Bengals training camp scuffle

Honest words about what went down at Bengals training camp from Orlando Brown Jr.

There was a scuffle on the first day of Cincinnati Bengals training camp and one of the players involved has already addressed it with an apology.

Said player is new arrival and offensive tackle Orlando Brown Jr., who fessed up to being right in the middle of the brief standoff with defensive end Trey Hendrickson.

Brown told reporters he feels terrible and made sure to apologize.

“I apologize to Trey and my teammates for what I did,” Brown said, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Charlie Goldsmith. “You just black out. One of those situations for me.”

The newcomer Brown found out what many Bengals fans already knew — Hendrickson is a very aggressive practice player.

Which isn’t to say practice as a whole doesn’t have intensity in Cincinnati, but it’s understandable on the first day that Hendrickson might have caught one of the guys he lines up against by surprise.

Kudos goes to Brown for admitting the mistake, which would seem to guarantee it won’t be an issue that pops up again.

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Brian Callahan believes in strongest Bengals offensive line he’s seen yet

Bengals coordinator Brian Callahan says the 2023 offensive line is the best yet.

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The Cincinnati Bengals offensive line has been one of their weakest points offensively since Joe Burrow was drafted, even surrending 41 sacks last season, which was in the bottom ten of the NFL.

On the Locked on Bengals podcast, Brian Callahan, the Bengals offensive coordinator, said he thinks the line they have put together is the best one he has seen since he’s been with the team.

“I think it’s safe to say it’s the best group from top to bottom that we’ve had in our time here,” Callahan said. “I just feel really good about the direction we’re headed, the players we’ve added and the players we have.”

Orlando Brown Jr. left the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs in free agency to join the Bengals and strengthen the left side of the line, and Jonah Williams is moving to right tackle after requesting a trade when Brown signed.

Cordell Volson, Ted Karras, and Alex Cappa return as starters on the inside of the line giving them what Callahan believes will be a very strong group to protect Burrow.

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Bengals OT Orlando Brown Jr. is tired of Super Bowl excuses (for Chiefs vs. Eagles)

Bengals OT Orlando Brown Jr. hit out at another player over Super Bowl talk.

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Like pretty much anyone else at this point, Cincinnati Bengals offensive tackle Orlando Brown Jr. is tired of hearing players talk about the now-infamous field conditions from last season’s Super Bowl.

Former Philadelphia Eagles safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson recently took to Twitter and suggested the outcome would have been different had the game been played on real grass.

Brown, who won that game with the Kansas City Chiefs, took exception and dropped a lengthy comment:

“We talking about grass on the biggest stage…Y’all rush plan was to win with games when rushing 4 with a mix of man and zone thinking that s— was getting home ❌ !!!! On top of that y’all rushed 5 with Cov 1 and a splash of 3!! Let’s not act like the field helped me stop a bull rush, I gotta get cleats in the ground to stop it. If anything it helped y’all!!”

For what it’s worth, the NFL has quietly blamed players for their cleat choices during the game.

This actually reeks of not too long ago when a Buffalo Bills player suggested the playoff loss to the Bengals would have been different had the field not been covered in snow.

Like that, this was silly offseason talk Brown was more than happy to shut down.

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Orlando Brown Jr. made Chiefs fans mad when comparing Joe Burrow and Patrick Mahomes

Orlando Brown Jr.’s comments on Joe Burrow and Patrick Mahomes, while perfectly reasonable, sparked an uproar.

Cincinnati Bengals offensive lineman Orlando Brown Jr. made the media rounds recently and talked about plenty of interesting things.

Chief (get it?) among those was Brown’s commentary on the difference between blocking for Patrick Mahomes and Joe Burrow.

One of those comments, as captured by Arrowhead Report’s Jordan Foote:

“Now, as opposed to having to play in a lot more space with guys on my edge, guys have got to rush through me because Joe isn’t necessarily at 12-1/2 or 13 yards on certain drops. He’s going to be at 7-1/2 getting the ball out.”

This is straight-up schematic talk from Brown — but it made fans, and especially Chiefs fans, pretty angry.

On paper, Brown is 100 percent correct, too. Burrow and the Bengals offense calls for fewer steps on a drop back for a few reasons, so Brown will see more power moves instead of speed moves trying to get around him. That’s actually something we brought up as a positive when the Bengals signed him, as it better fits his body and skillset and will give Burrow more predictable and manageable pressure off the edge compared to when Jonah Williams was at left tackle.

This isn’t a knock on Mahomes’ game, but a mere observation. The reaction and debate, as seen below, is why pro athletes tend to give vanilla, boring answers about pretty much everything.

Bengals’ Orlando Brown Jr. supports the fast-rising Reds

A fun comment about the Reds from Orlando Brown Jr. of the Bengals.

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For fans of Cincinnati sports, it has to be as sweet as it gets to see Cincinnati Bengals players embracing the suddenly-fantastic Cincinnati Reds.

Even before the Reds went on a 12-game tear with one of the hottest rookies in sports and the return of Joey Votto, it was new Bengals offensive tackle Orlando Brown who had thrown out a first pitch at a Reds game.

Now Brown has taken to Twitter with a message those fans will love: “Find me a better baseball stadium than Great American Ball Park…can’t.”

It’s a small statement, yet one that’s pretty cool for fans given Brown is new in town recently and already loving the scene. It’s also the latest in a running line of the Bengals supporting the Reds as the quick ascension continues.

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Orlando Brown Jr. getting advice from Hall of Famer Anthony Munoz

Orlando Brown Jr. reveals he’s getting advice from a Bengals legend.

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The Cincinnati Bengals’ biggest signing of the offseason, Orlando Brown Jr., has been adjusting well to Cincinnati and has been able to learn from one of the best Bengals linemen there has been.

Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com reported that Brown got the chance to talk with Pro Football Hall of Famer Anthony Munoz, who told him consistency is one of the most important things when it comes to having success as an offensive lineman in Cincinnati.

“I’m looking for his mindset and approach and he said he went into every training camp like he had to make the team,” Brown said. “He’s the best to ever do it and he went into it like that. It makes you think. And I had a lot more questions I didn’t get to.”

Brown said he enjoyed being able to talk to someone who played the same position and said he hopes he can get lunch with Munoz in a few weeks.

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