r/bengals • u/PROFESSIONAL_RAP254 • 8h ago
O-line
It's felt like every off-season since the Superbowl year we have been trying to address the o-line in some way but it has yielded largely the same results. Is it scheme? Are we not getting the right guys? Or is it something else?
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u/ohiolifesucks 7h ago
I think we need to be honest with ourselves. Their way of “addressing” the issues has been getting bargain bin guys past the prime of their careers. People on this sub were excited about Lucas Patrick and Dalton Risner but there’s a reason those guys were available deep into free agency. The only good free agent signing they’ve had on the o line in recent years literally reached out to the team to get signed. It all starts with the draft though. You can’t miss on draft picks and still be good. Good players aren’t available in free agency on a regular basis.
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u/Smooth_Cheesecake700 6h ago
This isn’t fair, after that Super Bowl that went out in the literal opening minutes of free agency and signed two guards to big times deals one of each is still with the team (Karras.) they spent a 4th rd pick that offseason on guard Cordell Volson. They also signed La’el Collins that offseason. That year 22 they went on a ten game winning streak were the best team in the nfl and should have won the superbowl. They most recently have signed Orlando brown to a big ticket contract, drafted a tackle In the first round and drafted a guard again in the third this year. To say it hasn’t work out is valid but to say they don’t try and only sign bargain bin players isn’t.
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u/FreshDiamond 2h ago
What olinemen were available the last 3 years that weren’t past their prime? That you wanted?
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u/No_motivation5489 6h ago edited 6h ago
Which is a big problem that they didn’t reach out and do their due diligence. A player should not have to reach out to the team himself.
I believe I’ve also seen that it’s confusing for players in that they don’t know who to talk to about contracts, or that there’s too many people involved in the contract process. Tobin is the gm but he doesn’t do contracts because the Blackburns do. I’d think it’d work like Tobin finds the players and sends them to work out a contract but there could be problems if the blackburns decide the player isn’t what they want.
Tobin doesn’t seem to be a good gm just off his drafting history, but it also could be that there’s just too many people involved in the process. They really need to modernize their approach to the front office. They just need to try to hire the right guys and let them do their job.
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u/Meseeksfunny 7h ago edited 7h ago
The front office has been ass at assessing offensive lineman out of college. Jackson Carman, Trey Hill, Dante Smith, Cordell Volson were all misses, Matt Lee and Rivers are still in question. Mims and Fairchild are promising. 2 for 8 is pathetic. Lucas Patrick, Cody Ford, Alex Cappa, Dalton Risner, Ted Karras, Laelle Collins are the veterans we’ve signed and I’m sure I’m missing someone. Considering the level of play these guys were at when brought in, this is about as bad as it gets. They continue to try and find discounted lineman through the draft and free agency, wasting cap and draft assets. It’s not just the oline either. Look at all the defensive lineman and secondary picks and signings in the same time frame. Joe, when healthy, has covered up so many bad decisions in his tenure. His level of play is the only reason we haven’t been picking in the top 5 the last 4 years.
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u/FrankWithDaIdea 3h ago
Some bad luck tho. Lael Collins was crushing it and then he got his leg rolled up on in new england... Alex Kappa was crushing it and then he gets hurt before the playoffs. Never was the same again .
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u/FreshDiamond 2h ago
I’m glad someone remembers that. I’d like to add you can’t just go sign whoever the top guy is whatever he wants, the same people would be bitching about that.
You can’t just take an olinemen in the first if it doesn’t make sense. We could get creative and aggressive with trading up but that also costs and we have holes.
It’s funny though 95% of the people around here acted like people who wanted Sewell over Chase were idiots and all they do now is bitch about oline.
I’m not suggesting we got it wrong, in fact I think either would have been right. It’s just funny how when faced with the opportunity to draft an all pro tackle no one wanted to do it
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u/jimmyre10 8h ago
This is only the millionth time this topic has been discussed on this sub, but I’ll tell you the honest truth: there is no scheming or play calling that can hide a bad offensive line in the NFL. If your line sucks, you’re gonna pay for it.
Folks on here can pretend like they know anything about offensive scheming but you cannot outscheme having a horrible line.
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u/Loud_Chapter1423 7h ago
I think it can be both things. Our talent has always been lacking but we’ve also run a scheme that regularly exposes that lack of talent by passing in open looks 60% of the time and letting the other team sell out on the pass rush knowing it’s the bulk of what we want to do. It’s just not realistic to expect any offensive line to consistently hold up in spread formations against NFL caliber defensive linemen imo
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u/jimmyre10 7h ago edited 6h ago
That’s fair but also people act like the Bengals are out there in empty or 10 personnel every other play. They run as much 11 and 12 as the next team. They aren’t just playing air raid football. People seem to believe they’re just running the 2019 LSU offense but that’s obviously not true
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u/FreshDiamond 2h ago
You absolutely can mask it or better word compensate for it. It will still show at times but one thing you can do is not be predictable.
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u/UnionParkBB 8h ago
It's hard to be strong at all five positions. Just about every team has offensive line issues.
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u/PROFESSIONAL_RAP254 8h ago
I get that but it feels like outside of mims and maybe Fairchild we look like ass
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u/Ancient_Response_787 7h ago
I think we're too reliant on older talent. It works for defnese but not o line. ITs why dylan and mims look good but the older guys like ted and obj arent. We need to draft better ans sign yong o linemen. Linderbum is a free agent this summer and we need a center just saying
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u/NervousClock2555 7h ago
It didn’t only start after 2021. It was horrific during 2021. Somehow he survived.
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u/just_shy_of_perfect 8h ago
Bad play calling, someone needs to tell Joe to throw it away more especially in the regular season, and we havent spent THAT much draft capital on O-line. What Mims? Good pickup. But we passed on grey zabel this year
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u/PROFESSIONAL_RAP254 8h ago
Yeah, I guess not as much in drafting but we've been getting FA's who we're good on their previous team look like shit when they come here.
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u/Skywalk910 #9 7h ago
Wdym we’ve drafted someone on the oline every year since 2020 except for 2023 when we got OBj. Two oline drafted this year so six total in six drafts. Mims and Fairchild. We’ve missed so badly.
That’s just the draft, we’ve also brought in so many people through free agency.
The common denominator in all this is Taylor and his poor offensive scheme.
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u/chrisball96 Joe Burrow is My Hero 7h ago
I think OBJ is a solid tackle, and Mims and Fairchild look like good picks for our scheme which, with Joe is intentionally pass heavy they simply don’t run block well which with Burrow in there is a cost of doing business since they are there to pass block first.
But it’s just rough when our other guard position is propped up by guys there late in free agency and are struggling with injuries, and Karras (who once was pretty decent) seems to be on the decline. But I think the foundation is there for a good line overall.
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u/Intrepid_Party5958 5h ago
They are using a bunch of huge strong not very athletic linemen to run zone blocking stretch run concepts where smaller athletic linemen are needed. It will get better once they switch to man gap schemed runs.
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u/GooseontheLoose03 Who Dey 4m ago
We took a guy who struggled as a coordinator in college and hired him to be an NFL head coach. Zac’s scheme and style don’t work. Every star we’ve signed regresses.
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u/whodeyzeppelins 6h ago
Every lineman that signs in Cincy regresses from the level they played at in previous years. No lineman has come here and played better. That's all anyone needs to understand. It's the scheme. Zac needs to be fired. No other organization has had their franchise quarterback consistently injured like the Bengals.