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The Bengals’ offensive line has been a disaster for several years now. Yet for whatever reason, the team did very little to address it this offseason.
Now, the franchise quarterback has a major injury, as Joe Burrow suffered a season-ending knee injury in the team’s Week 11 loss to Washington Football Team. This, after the Bengals entered the week allowing Burrow to be hit as much as a rookie QB has been since 2000.
#Bengals QB Joe Burrow came into the game having taken 72 hits. That was tied with Daniel Jones for the most by a rookie QB in his first nine games since 2000.
— Joe Reedy (@joereedy) November 22, 2020
But despite the offensive line issues, Zac Taylor would have you believe they’re doing fine.
Following the 20-9 loss in Washington, Taylor defended the Bengals’ offensive line. While he does make a good point that injuries have led to revolving doors at several positions, the starters who’ve been injured (Xavier Su’a-Filo, Bobby Hart) were already bad and maybe even worse than the guys who’ve replaced them (Fred Johnson, Hakeem Adeniji, Quinton Spain).
Asked Zac Taylor if they could have done more to protect Joe Burrow. This was his answer. pic.twitter.com/q4j0acV9XJ
— Paul Dehner Jr. (@pauldehnerjr) November 22, 2020
I’m not sure how Taylor can say they were doing a great job of protecting Burrow. Last week vs. the Steelers, Cincinnati surrendered four sacks and nine QB hits.
Sure, they looked good vs. the Titans, who’ve had arguably the worst pass rush of any NFL team this season.
Other than that, it’s been a disaster week in and week out. And now their franchise QB has a major leg injury because of it.
It’s too late to do much of anything now since the NFL Trade deadline has passed and there are very limited options on the free agent market. But come this offseason, there had better being significant changes made to the o-line if the Bengals want to avoid having Joe Burrow become the next David Carr.