Orlando Brown Jr. ranked 14th among offensive tackles entering 2023 season

The Cincinnati Bengals made one of the biggest splashes of the 2023 offseason by snagging left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. from the Kansas City Chiefs.

That was made even more evident with Pro Football Focus’ recent ranking of the league’s 32-best offensive tackles entering next season.

Checking in at 14th overall was Brown, who, as Gordon McGuinness accurately wrote, doesn’t quite have the ceiling of names like Trent Williams and Lane Johnson, but the floor is higher than just about anything Cincinnati has had since Andrew Whitworth.

Brown has developed into a high-floor NFL player, with his PFF grade sitting between 73.0 and 78.0 in each of the past four seasons. Five seasons into his NFL career, it’s fair to wonder if he’ll ever be a top-10 tackle. But at the very worst, he is a more-than-capable starting player on the left side.

For what it’s worth, this same ranking has Jawaan Taylor ranked 24th. Taylor is who the Chiefs effectively replaced Brown with, and it’s not the most promising write-up...

Taylor’s grading profile is one of the most interesting at the position. He earned a 75.9 PFF pass-blocking grade in 2022 that tied for 30th and a 39.7 PFF run-blocking grade that was the worst among starting offensive tackles.

Here’s to hoping Brown and the Bengals make the Chiefs regret this move.

As for the rest of the Bengals offensive line, PFF previously had Ted Karras ranked as the ninth-best center, while Alex Cappa is the 18th-best offensive guard.

If the Bengals can get good production out of second-year left guard Cordell Volson and fifth-year right tackle Jonah Williams, this unit has the potential to become one of the NFL’s best offensive lines after consistently being among the worst since 2017.